The third phase of expansion of the Hamad International Airport (HIA) is estimated to cost $3 billion.
“When the third phase is ready, HIA would be able to handle 53 million passengers a year against
its current capacity of 30 million,” Qatar Civil Aviation Authority Chairman Abdul Azeez Al Noaimi
said, while speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the Ministry of Transport at its special tent in
Darb al-Saai recently. Al Noaimi said the work on the second phase of expansion of the airport had
already started. The part of Doha Metro, linking different areas within the HIA, would be ready by
the middle of next year, Zawya.com quoted him as saying.
Qatar Aeronautical College Director General Ali Al Malki said that arrangements were being made
to shift the institution’s entire operations to the HIA Complex.
The college, he said, would be able to offer more professional educational programs in civil aviation
and related fields in coming years.
Al Malki also informed that negotiations were going on with Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) for setting up an aeronautical university of world standards. Speaking later, Qatar Rail Managing Director and senior engineer Abdulla Abdulazeez Al
Turki Al Subaie said that more than 40% of the boring work for 38 stations of the Doha Metro was
already completed. In all, 16% of the total work of the Doha Metro had been completed, he said
while disclosing that 21 boring machines would be deployed in different areas of Doha in 2015.
While informing that 70% of the construction design of Doha Metro was already completed, the
senior Qatar Rail official said the project featured 85km of railway lines in two directions, spread
over three lines - Blue, Red and Green.
Regarding the Lusail Light Rail Project, Al Subaie said an 8km tunnel was completed and more than
7km of electrical and mechanical works was also finished.
The light rail project features 35 stations covering a distance of 32km.
“Works within Qatar for the GCC Rail for passenger and freight transport would begin next year and
the first rail movement is expected sometime in 2018,” he added.
Source: Zawya.com

GWC to develop Bu Sulba
logistics hub for QR685m

Gulf Warehousing Company QSC (GWC) was awarded the contract to develop the Bu Sulba logistics
hub during the “Manateq Storage Project” launch on 14 December 2014. This logistics development will be aimed at serving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located primarily in the South
to Central part of Doha up to Al Gharrafa in addition to Al Wakra city.
The Bu Sulba hub will be a self-contained centre spread across an area of 517,376 sqm with a builtup area exceeding 40 percent of the total. This development will feature around 194 warehousing
units of different specifications optimised for SMEs, as well as a container yard, labour accommodation, first aid centre, a mosque, and commercial and other amenities.
The new warehouses will offer a variety of storage solutions ranging from dry, temperature-controlled, chilled and frozen as well as bulk storage, while taking into consideration the specific needs
of the SMEs.
“The role that SMEs play in growing and diversifying the economy has been well-established, which
has not gone unnoticed by government authorities, who opened the bid on this land to empower
SMEs and provide them with suitable environment to grow,” said GWC Chairman Sheikh Abdulla
bin Fahad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani (pictured). “GWC has been a key contributor to the country’s most advanced logistics infrastructure, developing key facilities across the nation and serving
nearly all industrial verticals. The project is considered part of GWC’s responsibility toward the Qatar National Vision 2030 on the one hand, and a complement to the company’s portfolio of services
offered on the other.”

Saint-Gobain and Sika in
buy-out standoff

The management of tunnel-waterproof-membrane provider Sika is yet to agree on terms for a potential sale to French building materials supplier Saint-Gobain.
Reports suggested Saint-Gobain signed a SFr2.75 billion ($2.87 billion) deal to gain control of Sika,
despite the Swiss group’s top guns threatening to resign if the deal went ahead, as they were not
consulted.
“The rumor that there has been an agreement between Sika management and Saint-Gobain is
unfounded. There
has been no development,”
Sika
spokesman Dominik
Slappnig said.
Saint-Gobain considers Sika’s US
portfolio as lucrative
stream compared
with the poor state
of the European
construction market.
Pierre-André
de
Chalendar,
SaintGobain’s chief executive, stated he expected growth to the
tune of €100 million
($125 million) a year from 2017 and €180 million a year from 2019 should Sika ink the deal.
De Chalendar hoped the situation with the management and the board to stabilize soon.
Source: worldtunnelling.com/Luke Buxton

News

Qatar’s ASTAD Project Management and Traffic Tech (Gulf) companies have won awards at
a regional recognition ceremony held in Dubai recently.
ASTAD Project Management, Qatar’s leading project management consultancy for building
and infrastructure, has won the Sustainability Initiative of the Year award for its contribution
to the Qatar Foundation Solar Smart Grid project at the Construction Week Awards 2014.
Traffic Tech (Gulf) was named the Sub-Contractor of the Year at the event. The Sub-Contractor of the Year category was fiercely competitive where Traffic Tech emerged the winner
among other shortlisted companies from Qatar and other GCC countries.
The judges said that Traffic Tech’s submission was “particularly impressive” and that it
managed to stand out as an organization with a proven track record of delivery.
The awards were part of the GCC edition of the Construction Week Awards 2014 held in
Dubai.
The award for ASTAD Project Management was presented to Abdulaziz Al Mulla, its Chief
Commercial Officer.
The Qatar Foundation Solar Smart Grid project, which is located at various facilities within
the Education City campus in Doha, represents an unprecedented opportunity to move the
energy industry into a new era of reliability, availability and efficiency.
It is composed of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations that generate 7,922 kilowatts of
clean energy annually and result in savings of approximately 3,961 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.
The most cutting-edge feature of the project is the design and construction of the Energy
Monitoring Center (EMC) that will enable real-time administration of all solar and power
quality monitoring systems from a central location, aiding in their efficient operation and
maintenance.
Having demonstrated a significant contribution to sustainable development over the last
year, the environmentally-friendly initiative is the first commercial PV project in Qatar to be
granted approval for grid connection from Kahramaa (Qatar General Electricity and Water
Corporation).
Commenting on the award, ASTAD Project Management CEO Ali Al-Khalifa said: “We are
honored to receive this outstanding regional award. ASTAD and Qatar Foundation share
a common set of values and goals that are in keeping with Qatar National Vision 2030,
which calls on us to harness climate action solutions through abundant natural resources
like solar energy.
“This project has proven to be a catalyst for increased growth in the renewable energy
sector as it demonstrates a successful application of the economic and environmental
benefits of solar technology.”
Apart from the clean energy generated, the Qatar Foundation Solar Smart Grid project
will contribute to an unprecedented transfer of knowledge through the Energy Monitoring
Center.
The center will allow visitors, students, and researchers to view individual system outputs
and technical grid data, while familiarizing themselves with Qatar Foundation’s various
green initiatives that are well aligned with the Qatar Green Building Council.
The Sustainability Initiative of the Year is just one of numerous accolades that ASTAD Project Management and Qatar Foundation have garnered this year.
In September, ASTAD and Qatar Foundation won the Health and Safety Initiative of the Year
at the 2014 Construction Week Qatar Awards for the QF Migrant Workers’ Welfare Initiative
(Karama).
Moreover, as a reflection of ASTAD’s exemplary contribution to the National Museum of
Qatar, it received the coveted Most Innovative Project of the Year award at the Qatar Contractors Forum.
The award for the Traffic Tech Group was handed over to Husam Musharbash, its President
and CEO, by Simon Moon, CEO at Atkins.
“This is great. We were shortlisted for the Qatar awards and we never expected we would
win the regional one so it’s really great for us,” said Musharbash.
“We are very proud. We’ve been in business for 28 years and we’ve won a lot of awards, but
this is one of the most important ones for us,” he said.
“We’ve been doing a lot of fast track projects and the project that I think has won us the
award is the Doha Corniche traffic signals project that we did in a very short period of time
and that was very challenging to us.
“This award further strengthens our market position as we aim to double our turnover in
the next five years by being a major contributor to Qatar’s massive intelligent transportation
system projects,” he added.

Qatar Green Building Council to launch ‘Green Pages’
Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), member of Qatar
Foundation for Education,
Science and Community Development (QF) has many
firsts to its name. QGBC, as
it is known, opened its first
energy efficient Passivhaus
in February 2013. There are
only 25,000 Passivhaus’
around the world. Passivhaus
is a German word that refers
to the rigorous, voluntary
standard for energy efficiency
in a building. QGBC partnered
with Barwa Real Estate (BRE)
and Kahramaa to launch this
groundbreaking experiment
in the region’s green building industry. The Passivhaus
boasts an exceptionally low
energy, airtight building design that requires minimal
energy for cooling the indoor
space, thereby reducing its
carbon footprint. The project
aims to educate the public
about the Passivhaus concept and generate community discussions about green
living and sustainable practices for residents of Qatar to
implement in their daily lives.
Alongside the Passivhaus
project, QGBC is currently undertaking other exciting projects as well.
Construction Sites spoke to
Eng. Meshal Al Shamari, Director of QGBC about their
work. QGBC is one of the 98
members of the World Green
Building Council (WGBC).
Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) is a non-profit,
membership-driven organisation providing leadership and
encouraging
collaboration
in conducting environmentally sustainable practices for
green building design and development in Qatar.
The latest project that they
will be launching for the construction sector is the ‘Green
Directory’. Al Shamari first
revealed plans to release
the country’s first ever national green directory a few
months ago in August 2014.
It is planned to be published
on an annual basis with its
first edition targeted to be
released in March 2015. The
directory aims to work as a
reference for clients interested in promoting sustainable
development in Qatar.
“One of the challenges the
industry faces here is the
non-availability of the right information, so many investors
or developers would like to
use green materials, but they
don’t know what services and
materials are already available in Qatar. So, what we are
trying is to create kind of a
platform for those products

that is open to everybody,”
emphasized Shamari.
Giving more details of the
project, he said that the
document’s marketing is
scheduled to start in January 2015, registration to be
featured in the green directory will be free of charge.
“Companies that would like to
register to be in the directory,
need to register with QGBC,”
he said. Shamari added that
QGBC hoped that the directory would be able to be the
missing link in the construction industry’s product supply chain. ‘It will be similar
to the Yellow Pages, as it will
indicate whether the product
is available in Qatar, how to
get it and who to get it from’.
There will be 64 categories
including; consultancies, Facility Management companies, furniture, detergents,
primary materials, cladding
and paints.
Shamari said that changes
in behaviour in the construction sector will be gradual
and that is what is demonstrated by the phased changes in the Qatar Construction
Standards. QCS 2014 was
released a few months ago
in November 2014 and it
includes an entire section
on more environmentally
friendly requirements for the
building sector (QCS: Section 7). However, he noted
that this section was already
there in 2010 but it was not
mandatory. Now it has been
made mandatory for the pub-

lic works sector and it is expected that it will be made
mandatory for the entire sector by 2016. Of course, he
added, conventional wisdom
tells us that when you give
someone a choice they will
always take the easiest one,
but this has not stopped the
concerned ministries from
developing ‘green codes’.
He emphasised that it was
understood that if there was
no self-interest or financial
interest that sector would not
change its behaviour. For example in the US and the UK
the incentive to comply with
green standards are market
driven. Owners that have Agrade properties (highest
green rating) are entitled to
ask for higher rental. These
properties have low utility
bills, which in Europe and the
US is major persuasive factor,
while those properties graded
B or C, might be cheaper, but
will have higher utility bills as
they are less energy efficient.
Shamari acknowledged that
this might not work in the
Gulf as energy is cheap, but
it illustrates that there are
different ways to persuade
the market apart from direct
government regulation. The
strategy from Kahramaa is
therefore to introduce regulation and enforce it over time.
Organisations like QGBC work
together with government
departments to advocate
green behaviour and educate
residents of Qatar on their
responsibilities towards the

environment.
The role that QGBC plays in
the green building sector was
underscored at a seminar
launching the ‘ICC’s Green
Economy Roadmap: implications for Qatar’. At the seminar Dr. Alex Amato, Head of
Sustainability at QGBC, moderated a panel discussion
during the seminar in which

work with ICC Qatar to introduce the concept of green
economy to its stakeholders,
the decision-makers and the
public in Qatar in order to create necessary policies and
to raise awareness of green
business and green economy in the country,” said Dr
Amato. “At QGBC, academics, innovators, researchers,

ment and implementation of
policies and actions towards
a green economy and to build
a platform for future action
and collaboration.” The roadmap aims to share existing
best practice and initiate new
collaborative activities.
Launched during Rio+20 as
an initiative to promote a
more common understanding of the green economy,
the roadmap outlines 10
conditions and related policy recommendations as a
framework to discuss a range
of inter-linked policies and
actions to transform into a
green economy. These conditions include social, environment and economic innovation; collaboration between
all sectors; integrated governance; balancing short-and
long-term strategies and multilateralism. An ‘integrated
governance approach’ where
that organization focusses on
a strategic approach to sustainability and not so much
the level of LEED, BREEAM
or GSAS certification it can
achieve is more responsible and more easily maintained in the long term, said
Al Shamari. He further explained how QF understood
sustainability. At QF sustainable practices not only applied to saving water and energy, it applies to all aspects
of a project; from responsible
sourcing, facility management, maintenance and even

representatives of the Qatari business community and
Governmental organizations
from different sectors – including oil and gas, construction and technology – shared
initiatives and challenges in
order to create a comprehensive overview of Qatar’s current sustainability status.
“As an overarching organization in the sustainability and
green building industries in
Qatar, QGBC is delighted to

activists and the public, work
together to collectively further the Qatar National Vision
2030. We do this through
safeguarding Qatar’s green
movement and sustainability
in general.”
According to Remy Rowhani,
Director General of Qatar
Chamber and Secretary General of ICC Qatar, “The ICC
Green Economy Roadmap
represents a comprehensive
effort to assist in the develop-

finance.
Shamari was upbeat about
the progress and work of
QGBC and said that he wanted the public to see it as the
‘go to’ place for everything
about ‘green technology’ and
sustainability. He hoped the
‘Green Directory’ would assist with providing advice and
technical support to the construction sector.
To learn more, please visit
www.qatargbc.org.

4

Construction

SITES

Legal

Prescriptive Periods in Qatar: Don’t get caught out

S

tatutory time limits for
bringing legal claims in
Qatar are called ‘prescriptive periods’, and
are equivalent in concept to
‘limitation periods’ which apply
to claims brought in the UK.
Prescriptive periods are important for contractors and
construction professionals, as
they define the length of time
in which claims can be made in
relation to the work undertaken
or advice given. However, these
periods can vary in length depending on the type of claim,
and can potentially be extended
by certain conduct or by implication, so care is needed when
managing the statutory expiry
of liabilities.
This article explores the main
prescriptive periods which apply to contractors and professional consultants in Qatar, how
these differ from jurisdictions
such as the UK, and how they
can be managed so that these
periods are not unintentionally
extended.
All Qatari Laws (save for those
issued by, eg. the QFC to regulate its own business), are issued in Arabic and there are no
official translations, therefore
for the purposes of drafting this
article Clyde & Co has used its
own translation and interpreted
the same in the context of Qatari laws, regulation and current
market practice.
Relevant prescriptive
periods
The most wide ranging statutory prescriptive period is for ‘personal rights’ (Article 403 of the
Qatar Civil Code). These personal rights are similar to com-

mon law ‘torts’, and include
claims for monetary damages
arising from most breaches of
contract. The prescriptive period for these personal rights
is 15 years from the date of
the breach of contract or other
cause of action, as set out in Article 403 of the Civil Code (and
unless altered by another law).
This means that most claims
between individuals or companies cannot be made, and effectively expire, after 15 years.
Another important prescriptive
period applies to the services
provided by architects, engineers and other experts. Article
405 of the Civil Code provides
that the prescriptive period in
these circumstances is reduced
to five years, and the time runs
from the actual performance of
the services, rather than the invoice date.
The prescriptive period relating
to decennial liability is set out
in Article 711 of the Civil Code
and, as its name suggests, applies for a period of ten years,
commencing on the handover
of the project. Decennial liability applies to contractors,
architects and engineers, and
makes them jointly and severally liable for any serious structural defect or collapse of the
building or structure, even if
they are not at fault.
As is clear from the above,
these prescriptive periods differ greatly to the ‘common law’
standard six years for breaches
of contract or non-contractual
damages, and the 12 year period for claims arising from a
contract made as a deed, which
some international contractors

Laura Warren
Laura Warren is a partner of the
International Law firm, Clyde &
Co LLP, in Doha. Laura has a wide
ranging contentious and non contentious construction practice involving projects in Qatar as well as
in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Libya,
Egypt and Tunisia
Laura is Co-ordinator for the Society of Construction Law (Gulf) in
Qatar.

might be more used to applying.
Reducing prescriptive
periods
In contrast to common law
jurisdictions such as the UK,
prescriptive periods cannot be
reduced by agreement or by
contract. Article 418 of the Civil
Code is very clear on this point,
and any contractual provision
which attempts to do so will be
invalid and unenforceable.
This raises an interesting issue
relating to claims for, say, an
extension of time or additional
preliminaries. Such claims are
often required to be made by
the contractor within a certain
number of days or weeks from
the underlying event. A common argument from the contractor is that a breach of such
a provision (i.e. the giving of a
late delay notice) often leads
to no actual financial loss to
the employer, and therefore the
strict time limit can be difficult
to enforce.
However, if that time limit is
drafted as a strict ‘condition
precedent’, which specifically
bars the contractor’s entitle-

ment to a claim if it is made
late, then these are usually
considered enforceable. Certainly, an employer would have
no problems relying upon such
a provision in the UK, provided
the drafting was sufficiently
clear. However, in Qatar, such
provisions could be interpreted as denying the contractor,
ahead of the expiry of the relevant prescriptive period, the
right to claim the appropriate
extension of time or additional
preliminaries. Such conditions
precedent therefore sit very
uneasily with Article 418 of
the Qatar Civil Code, which invalidates contractual provisions
which seek to reduce prescriptive periods.
Such questions will always
come down to the specific
wording of the clause, and the
facts of the matter. It is also
often argued that condition
precedent wording is a waiver
by the contractor of its underlying rights, rather than denying it the opportunity to actually claim those rights, although
such distinctions are somewhat
artificial.
Extending prescriptive
periods
Just as the parties to a contact
cannot agree to truncate or
shorten prescriptive periods,
Article 418(1) of the Civil Code
also prevents these periods
from being extended by agreement. However, that is not to
say that they are always set in
stone.

A prescriptive period can be
reset in certain circumstances,
thus effectively lengthening
the underlying period (Article
418(2)). For example,
this
could occur when a debtor acts
in a way which demonstrates
he is placing no reliance on
the prescriptive period, and
the technical defence that it
would give him. An example
of this might be a waiver of the
prescriptive period, or the making of a partial payment to the
creditor.
Notes of caution
Prescriptive periods can provide valuable protection to contractors and professional consultants operating in Qatar, and
awareness of the length of time
for which project risk might apply can be essential for accurate risk management and tender pricing. As a corollary, false
reliance should not be placed
on contracts which purport to
reduce or otherwise adjust the
periods of potential liability,
albeit that such clauses are
commonly included in certain
well-used international forms
of contract. To make it more
complicated, the Qatar Civil
Code and the Qatar Commercial Code contain many more
prescriptive periods than those
mentioned above, and care
should be taken to ascertain exactly which prescriptive periods
will apply to any particular work
or professional service.
Should you have any questions in connection with

Alexander Whyatt
Associate
Alexander is an associate in Clyde
& Co’s construction team in Doha,
and is a solicitor of the Court of
England and Wales. He is experienced with the legal and commercial issues affecting construction
professionals, having practiced in
Qatar, Dubai and London, as well
as within the legal team of an international contractor.
Alexander regularly acts for building contractors, professional consultants and property developers,
although he is also experienced
at assisting institutional investors
with construction issues and supporting corporate transactions.
He frequently advises on the drafting and interpretation of project
documentation and local legislation, and has acted for clients in
mediations, court proceedings and
arbitrations.

Established in 1974, TRAGS Engineering is
recognized as the leading Grade-1 MEP
Services, District Cooling and Facility
Management Contractor in the State of
Qatar. The scope of activities covers all
aspects of building services including design,
procurement, installation, testing and
commissioning of multi-service installations.
In addition, the company offers 24/7 Facility
Management Services to government
buildings,
corporations,
educational,
healthcare, industrial, commercial and
residential sectors.

n line with the global trend
of trade fairs being more
specialized, the Ibhar International
Exhibitions
Group is organizing Qatar COVERTECH - 2015, the first expo
in the Middle East and the Gulf
Co-operation Council (GCC)
that is fully dedicated to the
wall and floor covering sector.
Qatar COVERTECH will be held
from February 4 to 6, 2015,
at Doha Exhibition Centre.
Qatar COVERTECH comes in
response to market research
which has confirmed the need
for exhibitors to find more
specialized (B2B) events to
meet the demands of targeted
visitors, says IBHAR CEO Dr
Moyasser Saddiq.
“Events like these enable exhibitors to have a deeper understanding of visitor’s needs,
while giving an opportunity to
inform them about the latest
products and to discuss their
advantages,” he says.
The exhibition is held under
the auspices of the Qatar
Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting
(GOIC).
The sponsors’ list includes a
number of prominent names
in the GCC market: Nabina,
Tadmur, La Bella Villa, Mundo
bello, Doha Extraco and Hajar
Enterprises.
The exhibitor profile covers:
*Internal and external floor-

exterior.
Dr Saddiq says that Ibhar is
working in co-ordination with
a number of business organizations in Qatar and the Gulf
region to ensure that a huge
number of trade visitors, including consulting engineers,
architects, interior designers,
real estate developers, hotels
and facility managers and
senior officials representing
governments, municipalities,
banks and financial institutions will be among those attending the exhibition.

Strategies to minimize water use

Ashghal has developed and
is implementing a nationwide
program that includes the development of roads, drainage
and new infrastructure in all areas of Qatar as part of its Local
Roads and Drainage Program
(LR&DP).
Dr Neil Kirkpatrick, Sustainability Manager at Ashghal,
explained at a recent presentation that population growth,
leakage, investment in new
infrastructure and assets and
behavior change were some of
the main challenges facing water usage in Qatar.
Kirkpatrick said there were a
variety of technical solutions
aimed at minimizing water use
in buildings, public realm and
infrastructure.
In the buildings sector, solutions include change of behavior, using fixtures and fittings of
low or adjustable flow rates, using condensate collection, metering and leak detection and
grey water recycling.
In the public realm and irrigation, water consumption minimization options include balance between hardscape and
softscape, rethinking plant
palette, delivery systems and
flow rates. Besides the usage of
timer switches, sensors, water
retention aids in soils and closing the loop.
In infrastructure, metering and
leak detection also play a role.
Storm water management, efficiency of capture systems and
sustainable urban drainage
systems are equally important.
He explained that team work

was essential to deliver sustainable solutions. He added that
the use of “charrettes”’ helped
to give ownership to design options that satisfied sustainability – and commercial - objectives.
Kirkpatrick concluded the presentation with an overview on
what the future holds.
Taking into account the expected increase in population,
policy and regulation changes
and the new Qatar construction specifications and building
code, the future holds the possibility to choose from various
options:
• Reduced leakage (liability?
fines? targets?)
• Introduction
of
water
charges?
• Greater linkage between

BIM is not yet mandatory in Qatar, though it is a necessary tool and the local construction industry is mature enough to embrace the technology
Qatar’s construction industry is
increasingly adopting Building
Information Modeling (BIM) as
standard practice.
The key advantage of BIM is
closer collaboration among
owners, designers, contractors
and suppliers so that each party could provide relevant data to
construction projects.
BIM opens up huge opportunities for the product inclusion
within the projects. It allows
product suppliers and manufacturers to supply detailed “virtual products” to architects, engineers and specifiers as easily
as they traditionally provided
data or 2D CAD details with all
the consequent benefits of relationship building and product
loyalty in specification.
Being able to offer 3D ready
content is a major plus point for
any manufacturer and supplier
going forward with the innovations. It could also be an important factor for deciding who is
awarded a contract during the
tendering process as more and

more contractors and construction companies would prefer to
work with suppliers that provide
BIM ready data. Some marketing executives claim that the
customers say that they won’t
be using manufacturers that
don’t provide BIM ready objects.
The challenges for manufacturers are many. How to efficiently
produce the necessary data
for a large number of products
in the right format, when there
are so many available, and at
the right time and with the right
level of detail?
There is a common pattern with
manufacturers’ focus on products quality rather than process
and technology which guarantee long-term view of research
and development.
Manufacturers that provide
BIM content certainly benefit
by having their CAD files, product performance parameters,
dimensional options, specification details, material properties
(colors and finishes), branding,

links and other important specification information converted
in easy to use 3D components.
So the specifiers can easily use
in their projects real products
from the real manufacturers
available regionally or locally
instead of using generic components.
It will also allow specifier to
manage building materials logistics and to check the availability of the product from the
supplier and then create a photo-realistic renders and finalize
the project with the confidence
that the product is available on
the local market and complies
with the project’s specifications.
There are number of BIM components suppliers available
on the market that offer BIM
content creation for manufacturers. BIMobject is one of the
innovative BIM libraries that offers downloadable content of
real manufacturers’ products
and produces intelligent 3D
content in a variety of formats.
With a mission to assist product
manufacturers in the AEC field,
to be visible and get selected
by creating high quality easy
accessible objects for the BIM
process, the company provides
software tools, web solutions
and services for the creation,
conversion and publishing of
BIM objects on the web and
hence creates a direct path to
users of any BIM software.

This approach enabling the
manufacturers’ products to be
selected directly from the BIM
processes.
BIMobject
continuously
strengthens its technology portfolio with intelligent cloud solutions and a web-based infrastructure for interior design and
construction products.
Its product portal, which
was launched in early 2012,
reached more than 1,400,000
downloads, with more than
65,000 professional BIM users.
“It is amazing to see so many
users on the BIMobject Portal
and to see demands fulfilled.
We are constantly developing
the Portal and increasing the
number of published manufacturers - working hard to make
sure that the BIMobject Portal
will be the obvious choice for
architects and design professionals.
“With our large and growing
user base the BIMobject Portal
now represents a very efficient
marketing channel for our customers, says Stefan Larsson,
founder and CEO at BIMobject.”
Global market players continue
to launch their products as BIM
objects in the BIMobject Product portal. The influx of users
remains solid and such companies as Knauf Insulation, Offecct and Pressalit Care, Hilti
are among them. The company
has also several strategic partnerships in the GCC.

BIMobject has signed an
agreement with BIMES (BIM
Engineering Solution) to support the growing demand for
manufacturer specific content
in the form of BIM objects. The
collaboration between regional
BIM solution provider and BIMobject leverages a possibility
for manufacturers in the architectural, construction and interior industry to be placed into
a virtual version of the project
using BIM processes and software. BIM objects, according
to industry experts, will be a
needed component to get better control of construct-ability,
costs, visualizations, communications and simulations.
BIM objects is also considered
as a vehicle to use for new local manufacturers as well as
for international manufacturers
that wish to tender and market
themselves into a dynamic market and secure future growth on

the regional markets.
BIM isn’t yet mandatory in Qatar, though it is a necessary
tool and the local construction
industry is mature enough to
embrace the technology.
As today’s designed and built
projects are very complex and
require collaboration between
AEC firms involved in design
and construction process of the
project. It also requires collaboration with building products
manufacturers and fabricators.
This collaboration starts early in
the process and is maintained
throughout a project’s lifecycle.
The projects are becoming systems of systems, with this approach often demanding the
integration of products from
multiple manufacturers that
are customized to meet specific
in-field requirements for the
projects to be delivered faster,
at a lower cost and with higher
quality.

Acoustics Tech Qatar, (Doha on 10 and 11 December 2014 ) covered various issues related to acoustics from environmental risks, sound reduction in design, balancing building and performance requirements for acoustic design

P

eople spend an average
of 90% or more of their
time indoors, according
to research studies.
Research also maintains that indoor comfort is quite important
and it is based on a combination
of environmental quality, visual,
thermal and acoustic comfort,
says Dr Martha Katafygiotou, a
top expert in green building.
This clearly demonstrates the
close links among green building technology, acoustics and
comfort. Sustainability is one of
the driving forces in construction.
However, the acoustical environment is typically given little or no
consideration during the design
stage, said Dr Katafygiotou during her keynote address at the
recent Acoustics Tech Qatar.
Dr Katafygiotou discussed the
acoustical challenges in green
buildings in her address.
Acoustics Tech Qatar, held in
Doha on December 10and 11
covered various issues related
to acoustics from environmental
risks, sound reduction in design,
balancing building and performance requirements for acoustic design to acoustics in natural
ventilation.
There was also a case study
presentation of the acoustic

design at the temporary venues
of London 2012 Olympics and
Paralympic Games by Dr Konca
Saher, from the Kadir Has University in Turkey.
The lack of adequate speech privacy and control of noise levels
has been a major complaint, especially in office environments.
This could be attributed to the “Contrary to what one might
people not understanding the think, a Berkeley University
difference between music and study found that, ‘If you looked
at the last surveys you’d find
that, respondents’ acoustics
satisfaction was slightly lower in
green buildings than in regular
The outer beauty
buildings.’ A good example of
of a structure is
why this could be is to look at
recognized by how it the acoustic comfort in an open
looks…but the inner, plan office design building.”
more lasting beauty Surveys show that 65% of open
plan occupants are “often disof the structure
tracted”. The design dilemma
between providing acoustic priis truly known by
its comfort and its vacy for quiet work and openness for team interaction is a
sounds…
factor. Therefore private offices
are recommended for most
workers because it is hard to
work without distractions in an
open plan office.
noise.
Architecture and acoustic
“Music is the art of arranging design
and combining sounds to cre- Problem 1: Green strategies
ate a harmonious melody while may compromise acoustic denoise can obstruct and con- sign; discover which have the
fuse,” said Dr Katafygiotou.
most impact and how to address

them.
Solution 1: Open spaces –
open plan environments with
adequate daylighting can be
productive workspaces as long
as acoustics are not forgotten.
To accommodate daylighting
and natural ventilation in green
buildings often features a very
high percentage of open-plan
spaces, which eliminates key
acoustical control methods
(physical barriers).
Problem 2: Daylighting – Spaces are designed to allow natural
sunlight into the interior and
reduce energy use but many
of the strategies used for good
daylighting results in an inferior acoustical environment. The
overall geometry of the spaces
tends to be long and narrow to
ensure that no spot is too far
away from a window. But long
narrow spaces provide a bowling
alley effect for sound because it
bounces between the two exterior walls.

Solution 2: A more traditional,
square floor plan allows sound
to decay before it hits an outside wall and bounces back into
space.
Problem 3: Passive heating
and cooling systems.
Solution 3: Non-traditional
heating and cooling, such as radiant floor heating or the use of
thermal mass, requires exposed
concrete surfaces. Using thermal slabs eliminates the sound
deadening capabilities of carpet
underfoot and the absorption
overhead that acoustical ceiling
tile typically provides.
Problem 4: Hard surfaces and
materials.
Solution 4: The right surface
materials will function acoustically by absorbing noise and
blocking the transmission of
sound from one space to the
next. In green spaces, architects
tend to specify harder materials,
since they give the impression
of being easier to maintain and
offer a longer lifespan, however,
they also limit sound absorption.
While these conflicts were significant, said Dr Katafygiotou,
there were strategies that could
help enable sustainable design
and good acoustics to coexist
harmoniously.
She assured industry experts

and practitioners present that
green strategies did and could
enhance acoustics.
Bearing in mind that the challenges mentioned were significant, she added that designers could specify transparent,
sound-limiting barriers in the
workspace. Certain dividers
could be strategically lowered
while other partitions remained
on high in order to preserve
sightlines while providing acoustical separation.
And while some lighter surfaces
did reflect sound, there were
also products which absorbed
sound, and thereby accomplishing the dual purpose of supporting natural light while controlling
sound, she added.
Another aspect that can enhance acoustics is underfloor
air distribution. This is a sustainable strategy that can actually
decrease background sound.
The white noise of the conventional HVAC systems also helps
to mask conversations.
“HVAC is being delivered utilizing
lower fan speed and horsepower
through raised floor plenums.
These systems are much quieter
than traditional ducted systems,
allowing conversations to carry
through the workspace”, said Dr
Katafygiotou.

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As with every project, the key to success is in careful planning of the construction process.
Construction noise management plans present an indispensable tool when it comes to noise mitigation.
Being disturbed by noise emitted from nearby construction
sites and moreover being unable to sleep is a part of Doha’s
everyday life; attributed to ongoing construction and the high
pace of development. As the
construction noise is often perceived as a necessary evil and
beyond anyone’s influence, all
related discussions usually end
with a sense of helplessness
and displeasure. However, when
correctly managed the annoyance of construction noise can
be reduced significantly so that
the overall quality of our lives
can be improved.
Construction itself is a very complex process, involving numerous concerned parties and activities. By so, it is unavoidably
noisy and presents a substantial
impact to the environment, affecting wellbeing of both humans and animals. Construction noise is a common term
used to describe noise pollution
originating from various activities related to the construction
process; such as noise due to
transport and unload of materials, demolition, piling, excavation, power generation, etc. Generally, it can be categorized into
a noise from open construction
sites or interior works (renovation, fit-out, etc.).
The effect of noise on humans is
well documented and the World
Health Organization (WHO) ac-

knowledges noise as one of the
key factors related to our health.
Exposure to excessive noise, either at home or workplace, has
a severe impact on our health;
causing chronic fatigue, depression, loss of energy, lack of concentration, high levels of stress,
etc. Excessive noise perceived
at workplace severely diminishes employees’ concentration
and it’s considered as one of
the main components causing
workers’ dissatisfaction; having
a major effect on reduced productivity.
Construction noise is an everpresent problem whose effects
are frequently amplified in the
countries with a high rate of
development. In the case of
Qatar, a country with an unprecedented pace of construction;
combined with a lack of suitable legislation, the problem of
construction noise is reaching
almost epidemic proportions,
where construction is often
being carried out around the
clock, with sites operating 24
hours a day. In Doha, a city often described as an immense
construction site, there is virtually no area where construction
can’t be seen or heard. Apart
from the direct influences of
construction activity; indirect
ones such as the chronic problem of heavy vehicles in regular
traffic, shouldn’t be disregarded.
It is not well known that Qatar

has an Environmental Law in
place, defining noise limits which
shouldn’t be exceeded during
day and night time. However, the
law is not detailed enough, as
it doesn’t distinguish between
various types of noise (traffic,
construction, events, building
services, etc.) and in general,
it is disregarded. Until Qatar
implements a dedicated law
addressing construction noise;
it should be the contractor’s
responsibility to consider potential noise control measures and
reduce noise pollution as much
as possible. Although it should
not be expected that contractors
will put any control measure in
place if it’s not enforced by the
authorities. To encourage the
latter, authorities have to form
a certain body that can receive
and process complaints from
the public. As for this moment, it
is virtually impossible to file any
complaint if you’re bothered by
excessive noise of a nearby construction site.
How is construction noise controlled? As with every project,
the key to success is in careful
planning of the construction process. Construction noise management plans present an indispensable tool when it comes to
noise mitigation. Internationally,
such plans are part of mandatory documentation required to
obtain a building permit. The
purpose of these plans is to

predict specific construction activities and the related noise impacts; then define suitable noise
mitigating treatments. Construction noise can be mitigated in
various ways. Some of the common means of noise mitigation
are:
• Noise barriers
• Acoustic enclosures
• Using excavated soil as embankments
• Conduction on noisy activities during the daytime
The least that any contractor
can do; is to list all the noisy activities foreseen and plan their
execution during the daytime if
the construction site is located
in a heavily populated area.
Apart from these; another important measure of contained

in any noise management plan
is to encourage positive community relations. Accepting the
residents of nearby buildings as
partners rather than disturbing
factors, can make everyone’s
life easier.
Informing residents, disturbed
by noise, about scheduled noisy
activities and keeping them up
to date with noise control measures undertaken, builds strong
community relations and aids in
avoiding frequent complaints or
even law suits. Psychologically,
tenants tend to tolerate construction noise for a longer period of time, if aware of timings
and expected start-end dates of
noisy activities.
Everyone’s
sleeping
hours
should be found valuable and

the comfort of people should be
of primary importance and not
placed second in importance
to the project. It is possible to
significantly reduce construction noise if there is coordination between the contractor and
the acoustic consultant, for the
duration of a project. In the near
future, those construction sites
not implementing noise management policies will be closed
by the authorities. Despite the
typically short deadlines and a
highly stressful environment,
that characterises the construction industry, the best engineering practices related to noise
control should be implemented
and become an integral part of
every project, starting from the
building permit process.

11

12

Are we serious about GREEN?

Qatar has succeeded in placing itself as one of the first amongst the greatest advocates of “sustainability” worldwide since the introduction of Qatar National Vision (QNV2030)
By Diaa El-Masry
It seems that everyone is suddenly interested in “GREEN”
to the extent that the word
“GREEN” has started to lose
its meaning!
Today, ‘Green’ is the easiest
word to express your interest
in achieving “sustainability”
goals, if any. It has become a
magic word to promote anything and everything, from
cosmetics to aircrafts and
from hospitality to heavy industries.
Nobody denies that Qatar
has succeeded in placing itself first amongst the greatest advocates of “sustainability” worldwide since the
introduction of Qatar National Vision (QNV2030) in the
year 2010. The “green” concept has now emerged in the
construction industry, like in
other sectors as well. Green
building technology and
sustainable construction became a trend in the market
after the adoption of different green building rating systems (LEED/QSAS/GSAS).
The trend has taken form and
gained momentum through
the subsequent initiatives
that were taken by different
stakeholders. From government agencies to businesses
and from research houses to
NGO’s, we have witnessed
an unprecedented number
of efforts and initiatives, all
aimed at promoting “green”
or “sustainability”. However, I
can admit that after 5 years
we have achieved very little
of what we dreamed of in
2010! Nevertheless, this is
better than nothing anyway.
This raises important questions: What went wrong?
Moreover, how to get better
results?
From my point of view, I think
we have all had good intentions in our efforts. However,
most of these efforts lacked
“seriousness”. I do not believe in the proverb “The road
to hell is paved with good intentions”, as I am sure good
intentions always lead to a
better world as long as they
are “serious” intentions.
First things first:
Before being “serious” about
Green, let us agree that we
still have a large “integration” gap as well as a large
“knowledge” gap in the construction market. I believe
that those two gaps are
preventing us from making
steady gains in our progress
towards a sustainable community; in the very least it is
slowing down this progress.
There are many un-coordinated efforts that result in
missing opportunities to realize our goals. For me, it looks

like starting the construction
of a high-rise building from
the second floor! It simply
won’t work because foundations must be constructed
first. Becoming “Green” requires preparation and coordination at all organizational
levels. There must be sort
of “green infrastructure” or
“green base” from which we
can unify and launch all our
efforts and ensure hitting the
targets. We need to fill the
knowledge gap first by more
education and awareness of
all aspects of sustainability,
and then join forces together
to fill the integration gap by
more coordination & collaboration.
First, there is our ecosystem,
which includes us together
with other living and nonliving things. This is simply the
environment within which we
live, work and grow. Then,
there is our society as a subsystem, where we interact
and assist each other in all
facets of life. As a result of
our social interactions, the
economic system exists as
a subsystem to our community. This specific hierarchy
requires wise thinking and a
high level of human collaboration to control and prevent
a subsystem from adversely
affecting or destroying the
system of which it is part.
Sustainability, in its essence,
is to be responsible and
“seriously” take part in this
wise thinking (knowledge)
and human collaboration
(integration). In the first part
of this article, we will focus
on establishing a level of
“knowledge” about “green”
and more specifically “green
building”. This will prepare
the scene for the second
part, which will focus on the
“integration” of the missing
parts of the puzzle.
Areas of Confusion:
You may be keen to participate in the “green” movement, whether seeking your
own business benefits or willing to advocate sustainability. In both cases, you need
to clear your understanding
of some areas that came as
a result of the “green” movement.The following are some
areas of confusion related to
the Green Building concept,
which if not clarified may deviate your goal:
Product
Certification/Endorsement:
“To differentiate your product
or service as environmentally sound, you may want
to obtain certification from
an independent, third-party
so that you can include their
logo or “ecolabel” on your
product’s label and other

marketing materials. Ecolabeling is important way to
market your product to green
consumers.” (Source: U.S.
Small Businesses Administration)
Most importantly, you need
to know that green building rating systems are not
the right place to seek your
product certification. LEED or
GSAS, for example, never endorse or approve manufacturers, products, systems or
materials. They are intended
to guide the project teams to
utilize the best practices in
order to ensure a better performance of the building as
a whole. However, by understanding how those assessment tools work and what
they require, you will be able
to align your products/services with their requirements.
I have seen many suppliers
and manufacturers who were
very interested to get their
product or service “green
certified”. They were ready
to do whatever it takes them
to be listed as preferred
manufacturers or suppliers
for LEED or GSAS rating systems. Later, they got to know
that the only way to do that
is through certain third-party
organizations which have no
existence in Qatar or GCC.
Here, we may raise another
important question, is there
any plans for the GCC (as a
consistent united entity) to
have regional organizations
that can provide such thirdparty certification? The following question should be:
when?
Building Certification:
Not like product certification,
a building certification process is a holistic approach
to measure and assess a
whole building performance
against different impact categories and performancecriteria. “Knowledge” is essential in understanding the
implications of this process
to the design and construction of the building. “Integration” becomes the next
magic word in achieving the
certification goal.
According to the Green Building Alliance (GBA), thirdparty certification is a great
way to add credibility to any
green building.The process
of achieving certification also
adds a layer of accountability
and integrity for the building
project teams. While a building can certainly be green
and high-performing if it is
not certified, there are several tangible and intangible
benefits that accompany
certification that cannot be
as easily attained without it.
Benefits include:

• Higher rental or resale
value
• Higher occupant satisfaction
• Higher demand
• Lower operating costs
Third-party certification is
not the only way to achieve
a healthy and high-performance space, but it is certainly one of the most efficient ways to guarantee you
get it done.
Every project, team, and budget will consider a variety of
different delivery and verification methods for their highperformance place; however,
anyone working on a green
building project should review the following certification options, benefits, costs,
considerations, and requirements:
QSAS/GSAS:

GSAS, Global Sustainability Assessment System (formerly known as QSAS) is
developedby GORD (Gulf
Organization for Research
& Development) through
several years of intense collaboration with theTC Chan
Centre at the University of
Pennsylvania, and Schoolof
Architecture at the Georgia
Institute of Technology, USA
andother reputed houses of
expertise.GSAS was developed by drawing best practices adopted from40 different
rating systems known regionally and internationally.
GSAS is the Middle East’s
first integrated and performance-based
sustainability assessment system
for the built environment.
The systematic assessment
method is applied seamlesslyfrom the macro to a micro
scales encompassing urban
design,infrastructure
and
buildings levels.
LEED

LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design,
is transforming the way we
think about how our buildings and communities are
designed, constructed, maintained and operated across
the globe. LEED is a green

building certification program that recognizes best-inclass building strategies and
practices. To receive LEED
certification, building projects satisfy prerequisites and
earn points to achieve different levels of certification.
Prerequisites and credits
differ for each rating system,
and teams choose the best
fit for their project.
Although GSAS and LEED
are being recognized very
well in Qatar and the region,
many other forms of green
building rating systems are
available mainly in the U.S.
and Europe. “Knowing” a bit
about some of those systems
will help you understand the
different aspects of building
certification and start thinking how to “integrate” your
efforts to achieve better
goals (Source: Green Building Alliance):
ENERGY STAR for Buildings Program
ENERY STAR was originally
developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) as a voluntary labeling
program to promote energyefficient products and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Home Energy Rating System
The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) is an evaluation
of energy efficiency and forecasted energy costs within a
home.
Green Globes
The Green Globes system
was based on the Building
Research Establishment’s
Environmental Assessment
Method (BREEAM) by the Canadian Standards Association.
Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge
(LBC), administered by the
International Living Future
Institute (ILFI), is a philosophy, advocacy platform, and
certification program that
promotes a high standard for
buildings.
National Green Building
Standard
The National Association of
Home Builders (NAHB) and
the International Code Council (ICC) partnered to establish a nationally recognized
standard definition of green
building for homes.
Net-Zero Energy Building
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) provides
a certification option for aNet
Zero Energy Building (NZEB)
under its umbrella of the
holistic Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification.
Passive House
The Passivhaus standard
was developed in Germany in
the early 1990s and the first

DIAA EL-MASRY:
is the General Manager and cofounder of QATAR GREEN
LEADERS, a specialized company
in Green Building Certification
Management & Training. With
more than 20 Years of experience
in Architectural Design as a Senior
Architect & Design Manager, Mr.
El-Masry grew a keen interest towards encouraging and accelerating global adoption of green building and sustainable development
practices. He has strong experience as a mentor of Green Building Concepts, LEED programmes,
Design Management and public
awareness. He is a pioneer in providing Green Building training to
various clients & organizations in
Qatar & GCC.

dwellings to be completed
to the Passivhaus Standard
were constructed in Darmstadt in 1991.
ENERGY STAR for Homes
ENERGY STAR certification
was first offered for homes
in 1995. Initially focused
on windows, air sealing, and
HVAC, the label has since
been updated to apply to
more components of the
home including lighting, insulation, and appliances.
Class-G
Class-G is an online platform
designed to track the ongoing sustainability measures
enacted in existing buildings.
Structured around a yes/no
checklist, the system allows
companies to self-certify and
compare their various locations.
WELL Building Standard
Currently in its pilot phase,
the WELL Building Standard
focuses on the health and
wellness impacts that buildings have on occupants. Areas of concentration are air,
water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind.
BOMA 360 Performance
Program
The BOMA 360 Performance
Program, sponsored by Building Owners and Managers
Association
International,
awards buildings that meet
industry best practices in
building management and
operations.
Professional Accreditation
Let us put it in this way:
buildings are “certified”,
while professionals are “accredited”. Accreditation is
an essential part in filling
the gap of “knowledge”.
You cannot expect success

13
as a “Green” professional
without testing your level of
understanding and proving
your capabilities through a
formal accreditation exam.
With new jobs specifying the
need for expertise in LEED
and/or GSAS, you can earn
LEED/GSAS
professional
credentials to demonstrate
your leadership in the field
and in-depth knowledge of
the rating systems and green
building strategies. You may
have heard about the following degrees of “green” accreditation:
LEED GA Credential

LEED Green Associates have
a documented, up-to-date
understanding of the most
current green building principles and practices, and are
committed to their professional future. This level of accreditation is considered as
the first tier of a 2-tier exam
towards becoming fully accredited as LEED AP (Accredited Professional).
LEED AP Credential
The LEED AP credential arms

you with advanced knowledge in green building as
well as expertise in a particular LEED rating system.
There are five specialties of
the exam including:
• LEED AP (BD+C): Building Design & Construction
• LEED AP (ID+C): Interior
Design & Construction
• LEED AP (EBOM): Existing Building Operation &
Maintenance
• LEED AP (ND): Neighborhood Development
• LEED AP (Home): LEED
for Homes
Read more about LEED Accreditation here: www.usgbc.
org
GSAS CGP Credential
GORD Academy, a leading
high-quality training provider
center of excellence, offers a
wide range of memberships
and accreditations. These
programs are designed to
meet the skill enhancement
needs of the professionals
working in the constructionindustry.
To manage a project for certification, the GSAS Project
Manager must be a GSASCGP, which means GSASCertified Green Professional.

This credential is the starting
level for candidates who wish
to apply for all other credentialing schemes in the future.This title is conferred to
those candidates who have
earned the GSAS-CGP certification’s full requirements
and by demonstrating a
well-rounded understanding
and knowledge of the GSAS
projectmanagement through
participation in the GSAS
3-day training workshop and
passing the GSAS exam.
Read more about GSAS Accreditation here:
www.gord.qa
Corporate Sustainability
According to Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, Corporate
Sustainability is a business
approach that creates longterm shareholder value by
embracing
opportunities
and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social develop-

ments.Sustainability-related
megatrends are changing
our world and are having a
measurable impact on companies’ top and bottom lines.
Long-term challenges such
as resource scarcity, demographic shifts and climate
change are redefining societal expectations, public policies, regulatory frameworks,
and hence business environments and investment outcomes.
The quality of a company’s
strategy and management
and its performance in dealing with opportunities and
risks deriving from economic, environmental and social
developments can be quantified and used to identify and
select leading companies for
investment purposes. For
this reason, Corporate Sustainability Assessment systems have been developed
in order to help identify those

companies that are best
equipped to recognize and
respond to emerging opportunities and risks resulting
from global sustainability
trends.
Seemingly, the corporate
sustainability is related to
the attitude of a company
and is used as a measure of
the behavior of its business
activities in terms of Environmental, Social and Economic
aspects. This has nothing to
do with Green Building certification, although both are
addressing sustainability.
Greenwashing
According to the Greenwashing Index, greenwashing happens when a company or
organization spends more
time and money claiming to
be “green” through advertising and marketing than
actually implementing business practices that minimize
environmental impact. Evidence that an organization
is greenwashing often comes
from pointing out the spending differences: when significantly more money or time
has been spent advertising
being “green” (that is, operating with consideration for
the environment), than is actually spent on environmentally sound practices. Greenwashing efforts can range
from changing the name or
label of a product to evoke
the natural environment on a
product that contains harm-

ful chemicals to multimillion
dollar advertising campaigns
portraying highly polluting
energy companies as ecofriendly
We are in a continually changing world! Things are becoming more sophisticated and
complicated than ever before. The impacts of human
activities are proven to be of
tremendous effects on our
ecosystem. This leaves us
with only one option, to take
sustainability to a “serious”
level to achieve our national
vision QNV2030. In a knowledge-based economy like the
case of Qatar, knowledge become essential for everybody
which mandates self-learning and sharing of knowledge
and experience. On the other
hand, our diversified initiatives and efforts should be
unified and “integrated” to
achieve real progress. In the
next article, we will examine
the missing components of
the green building sector in
Qatar, and how to integrate
them.
The article reflects the
personal perspective of
the author whose aim is
to improve the sustainability practices for a
better and more ‘green’
Qatar. Please, keep the
discussion going by contacting the author:
diaa@qatargreenleaders.
com

14

Demand for green building
materials in Qatar is set to soar

New government initiatives as well as greater awareness on environment present ample business
opportunities for green building material suppliers and manufacturers
The green building materials
market in Qatar is poised for
continued growth as the government not only encourages
sustainability approach in construction projects but also in
retrofitting existing buildings.
Sustainability is an essential
part of the construction industry and Qatar has already
proved its commitment to the
move by being ranked the sixth
in the world in green buildings.
New government initiatives as
well as greater awareness on
environment and health offer
ample business opportunities
for green building material sup-

pliers and manufacturers.
“Globally, the importance of
green building is on the rise
and the Qatar government is
keen on encouraging such
buildings,” HE the Minister of
Business and Trade Sheikh
Ahmed Bin Jassim Al Thani
stressed during the GCC and
Yemen Building Materials Manufacturers Forum recently.
Qatar remains one of the top
countries for investment given
its booming population and
pace of infrastructure expansion.
“There is an international trend
towards green buildings. Thus,

increasing attention is being
given to eco-friendly materials,
offering incentives to produce
these materials and use them
in the construction of new
buildings in GCC countries in
order to achieve sustainability
and protect the environment,”
said the Minister.
Local authorities have developed a range of investment
opportunities that address the
green building materials sector.
The GOIC (Gulf Organisation for
Industrial Consulting) is promoting partnership and cooperation among manufacturers
and consultants, contractors,
investors and decision-makers
to encourage investment in the
green buildings materials sector.
“It is well-known that the new
worldwide trend is towards
green buildings, the production
and use of eco-friendly materials and energy-efficiency within
facilities,” said GOIC Secretary
General Abdulaziz Bin Hamad
Al Ageel.
“This movement resulted in the
creation of new and unconventional building materials that
are in line with the new building specifications requiring the

use of green materials and offering incentives to manufacture these materials in order
to achieve the highest levels of
sustainability.
“In this regard, several green
building projects are taking
place throughout GCC countries. These are innovative projects in terms of implementing
the best worldwide specifications.”
As Qatar strives to embrace a
sustainable tomorrow, green
buildings are unavoidable part
of it. Industry leader agree that
more focus has to be made on
green building materials and
the need to provide the local
construction industry with sufficient supply of these materials
to Qatar, so that the shortage
won’t consequently increase
the cost of green buildings.
“The supply of basic construction materials in the region fulfills the needs,” said Abdul Rahman Abdulla Al Ansari, CEO of
Qatar Industrial Manufacturing
Company (QIMC). “But there is
a quality shortage especially
when it comes to green construction materials.”
He urged governments to partner with the private sector in

order to invest in this sector.
The green building materials
market in GCC is estimated to
reach $22.97 billion in 2016,
according to analysis from
Frost and Sullivan. The major
green materials in demand in
the region are concrete, insulation, paints and flooring.
According to the report, the current and future market players
have to consider many aspects
of green materials used across
the GCC, such as evaluation
criteria for these products,
overall market opportunities in
volumes and values, demand
in key countries, competition analysis, future potential,
growth rates, pries and imminent trends to be successful in
this market.
“GCC is the fastest developing
region in terms of infrastructure and the rising emphasis
on sustainable construction
practices, lower carbon footprint, and reduced wastage
has fuelled the use of green
construction materials,” said
Frost & Sullivan Chemicals and
Materials Analyst.
While existing suppliers have
nurtured robust customer relationships with governments

Healing gardens for patients Qatari Sources

H

ealthcare is undergoing vast changes. In
the last two decades,
gardens with therapeutic qualities have begun to
appear in many healthcare facilities around the globe.
“Healing gardens” are now increasingly being designed to
support the treatment of patients with specific conditions.
In a presentation about the
healing landscape environment, architect Amr Metwally,
Head of the Architecture Division, PMC, Hamad Medical Corporation, pointed out that therapeutic gardens were being
planned for cancer patients,
veterans, children, people with
dementia, hospice care and
mental health facilities, among
others.
He said that numerous studies
had confirmed that the experience and exposure to nature
within the outdoor environment
provided a potentially positive
distraction that could facilitate
stress reduction and increase
comfort.
Metwally said that there were
various types of therapeutic

gardens: rehabilitative, healing, restorative, enabling and
meditative.
Rehabilitative garden
With a primary focus on physical outcome, this kind of garden is programmed to parallel
treatment protocols of the patient group. This garden type
has measurable outcome in
the form of physical improvements.
Restorative
This garden type focuses primarily on the emotional and
psychological outcome. The
program is aimed to facilitate a
return to balance and homeostasis. This is most appropriate
for user groups that have recently experienced stressful or
traumatic events.
Meditative
Focusing primarily on spiritual
and psychological outcome,
this garden type is designed
to allow for individual or small
group programs that focus on
inward and facilitate reflection.
Healing
This garden type is a combination of the rehabilitative,
restorative, and meditative

typologies, focusing primarily
on spiritual, psychological and
physical outcomes.
The program elements of a
healing garden allow for both
passive and active opportunities to facilitate individual
needs for restoration, rehabilitation, and meditation.
Enabling
The primary focus is on the
physiological outcomes of the
primary user group. This garden type is programmed to
both maintain and enhance
the physical condition of the
targeted users.
Program elements provide opportunity for users to engage
in activities that will improve
cardiac performance, gross
and fine motor skills, muscle
strength, range of motion and
co-ordination.
Metwally explained that considerations like comfort, access
and furnishings, social Interaction and involvement, sensory
stimulations and aspects like
management and maintenance were taken into account
when designing various types
of healing spaces.

and large clients, the untapped
private and small real-estate
construction segments widen
the prospects of market entrants and offer added avenues
for revenue generation.
Therefore, green material
providers need to distinguish
themselves in terms of quality and pricing to gain market share, particularly in less
competitive segments such as
flooring and insulation. Joint
ventures with local companies
will provide quick access to
consumers, reducing the time
required to build a brand.
“Companies must look to comply with the requirements of
local green body councils and
design products specific to the
rating system for maximum
sustainability points,” advised
the Analyst. “Since regional
governments are the largest
investors in construction, producing solutions suited to their
needs will ensure profitability.”
Improving end-user and consumer awareness on the economic, social and environmental benefits of green materials
will sustain market growth in
the long run, according to the
report.

The path to sustainability for the concrete ready-mix industry is going to be through the use
of advanced technology.

F

alcon Ready Mix is the
first Ready Mix Company in Qatar to be
NRMCA
Sustainable
Concrete Plant certified. With
its Silver Level certification,
Falcon Ready Mix is supporting
sustainability in Qatar’s construction industry and balancing its business aims between
economic prosperity and social
responsibility. A Subsidiary of
Investment Holding Group – AlHodaifi Group, the company has
cemented its name in the market as one of the fastest growing
ready mix concrete companies
in Qatar. Established in 2011,
Falcon Ready Mix today tops
the lists of the world’s sustainable batching plants. With the
first cubic meter of ready mix
produced on the 1st of March
2011, Falcon Ready Mix has
given the first and major priority to produce a superior quality ready mix thus has gained
the reputation of the company
that combines excellence in
services, delivery of superior quality products, using the
most advanced technologies,
coupled with the company’s
commitments to sustainability.
Committed and adhering to Qatar’s sustainable development
practices, the General Manager
of Falcon Ready Mix, Mr. Assad
Nasser shared his thoughts on
the current construction market situation and his forecast
for the coming period. Optimistic about the market in general,
Nasser sees the long awaited
boom in the construction sector beginning in 2015. Doha is
rapidly expanding and in a few

I foresee a high
demand for
concrete in the
future. The ready
mix concrete
sector needs to
focus on adopting
the advanced
technologies
available in the
market, especially,
in regard to the use
of recycled
materials

years’ time there will be no typical desert areas. There are still
lots of works to be done on Qatar’s infrastructure. The city is
in need of hotels, water tanks,
roads, sewer system and water reservoirs. Five new water
reservoirs are planned and are
part of the critical deliverables
as water is a scarce resource in
the region that must be considered in protecting and recycling.
He predicts that more ports will
be built, maybe not as large as
the New Doha Port currently being completed but smaller ports
servicing local needs. Construc-

tion Sites chatted to Nasser
about the concrete business,
his thoughts on the construction sector and his aspirations
for greening the ready mix sector.
How would you describe
the concrete ready mix sector in Qatar?
Concrete has changed the
world and it is the main ingredient in the construction process. No building project can
be executed without the use of
concrete ready mix. Yes, steel
is widely used in Qatar, in fact
overused sometimes, but con-

crete has proved its strength.
In Europe, now steel is losing its
popularity. Building contractors
have found that they can get
the same strength and durability by improving and increasing
the strength of the concrete,
than by adding more steel to
the structure. This decreases
the cost of the building as well
as increasing its green rating. In
addition to material technology
is improving, thus, leaving greater options for contractors to use
wide range of materials to meet
the structure and sustainability
requirements. The materials do

not have to be always the most
expensive ones. In Qatar and
in the region, Project Managers and Technical experts tend
to over specify the strength of
concrete. Qatar projects tend to
design high concrete specifications which are not required in
all cases. The market in Qatar
is at a stage where it needs to
adjust to this new thinking, especially with the scarcity of raw
materials and the challenge of
logistics. Technology is the key
to creating strength in concrete,
not more steel.
Falcon Ready Mix has a
Green Star from the NRMCA. What are your views on
the Recycling Concrete?
Sustainability is not only about
recycling concrete. We are able
to do this as we have the machinery but according to the
QCS it has not yet been allowed
for us to use the recycled aggregate and sand. I am sure that in
the next issue of QCS, use of recycle materials will be allowed
with a certain percentages for
specific usages. Using recycling
technology is not only of commercial benefits, it also will help
us to save scarce resources and
to preserve the environment.
Falcon Ready Mix is committed
to the sustainable production
of concrete and will work with
necessary Ministries to promote Green Technology within
the sector. I do not recommend
that we use recycled materials
in main building structures but
it can be used in a number of
secondary products. I am most
excited by the idea of using it to
manufacture street furniture.
Can you imagine if all the parks
and recreation areas in Qatar
has outdoor furniture made of
recycled materials? Even the
decorative flower pots and lamp
posts that we see along the
roads and in front of hotels and
malls can be made of recycled
concrete, reuse means less
shortage of raw materials. It will
save money, trucks and equip-

ment and time spent procuring
and sourcing raw materials.
When we spoke to you in
July 2014, you mentioned
that the construction industry is facing an acute shortage of raw materials. Is this
still the case?
Yes, there is still a shortage of
aggregates including washed
sand. The shortage was due to
standardization by the QCS (Qatar Construction Standards) to
ensure that the materials are of
good quality. QPMC is making
sure that Qatar receives only
the best quality of raw building
materials, like, gabbro, sand
and other aggregates. Unfortunately, no more licences are being issued to agencies to excavate for more sand and to find
new sources for washed sand.
According to the QCS dune
sand cannot be used, probably
for environmental reasons, and
this is a good thing. However,
the demand for ready mix concrete will increase in this year
and may put additional pressure on the supply chain. Another way to ease the pressure
may be to look at allowing the
use of recycled sand. I think that
the way forward in the read mix
concrete industry is technology.
Qatar has to be more open to
adopting more advanced technologies to source raw materials and chemicals, also, to look
at using synthetic materials in
the preparation of concrete. In
the past few years great progress has been made in Europe
and in USA with regards to how
concrete is prepared and its applications and uses. We cannot
continue to consider the ready
mix concrete business being
low in technology. Ready Mix
concrete companies need to
make sure that they recruit the
best qualified technical experts
who can advise on how to mix
the concrete but also which
machines to buy and to identify
global trends, like recycling and
the use of synthetic materials
for scarce resources.
Have your secured any new
projects other than those
acquired last year?
Yes, we have secured some
projects and several other projects are in the pipeline.
What is going to be your
message going forward?
I think that going forward, the
authorities should ease the
pressure on the supply of raw
materials. I foresee a high demand for concrete in the future.
The ready-mix concrete sector
needs to focus on adopting the
advanced technologies available in the market, especially,
with regard to the use of recycled materials. This is my wish
for us; not only to save money
but to work together to save
the environment. We need to
be a part of developing the sector. We can all do something to
help the environment and the
community. We are committed
to help build Qatar and support
this country in achieving its
dreams.

19

20

Qatar Green Building Council Offers
training programme in sustainability

Programme by Qatar Foundation includes professional courses led by seasoned experts
Qatar Green Building Council
(QGBC) has launched a comprehensive professional training programme aimed at enhancing the quality of green
building and sustainability education in Qatar and the region.

As a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and
Community Development (QF),
QGBC aligns itself with QF’s
mission to foster a progressive
society through education, and
seeks to support the Qatar Na-

tional Vision 2030 (QNV2030)
to create a sustainability culture in industry and within the
community.
The comprehensive training
programme aimed at construction, green building and sus-

QGBC_Professional_Training

QGBC will conduct a series of training sessions for
professionals on various sustainability-related topics
Title

Executive Masters Program in Energy
and Resources now available in Qatar

Hamad bin Khalifa University
(HBKU), a member of Qatar
Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development (QF), has launched a
program that is specially designed to create an in-depth
understanding of the role of
energy and resources in modern life – including their influence upon global politics, the
balance between satisfying our
energy needs and protecting
our natural environment, and
their capacity to drive international markets.
HBUK’s Executive Master in
Energy and Resources program
is specifically designed for highpotential managers and executives working in areas where
the production, consumption,
or environmental impact of energy and natural resources are
likely to significantly affect profits or policy.
“This program will give participants a complete and integrated understanding which
will prepare them to be better
leaders and decision-makers,”
says the Academic Coordinator
of the program, Prof Antoine
Hyafil. “Energy and resources
are the foundation of development in this and other regions,
and their importance directs
political and economic strategy
throughout the world,” points
out Prof Hyafil.
“It is vital that leaders and future leaders and major organizations appreciate the complexity and interconnectedness

of this area,” he adds.
Dr David Prior, Executive Vice
President and Provost of HBKU,
sees the new Executive Master
in Energy and Resources as “a
good illustration of how HBKU
is building upon its rich array of
partnerships to offer programs
that are uniquely suited to the
needs of Qatar and the region”.
“I look forward to the launch of
further teaching and research
programs at graduate level
which will enhance our impact,
especially by exploring areas at
the interface of traditional disciplines,” Dr Prior says.
“Our unique collaborations,
clearly reflected in continuously
evolving, innovative academic
programs, will present many
exciting opportunities.”
HBKU offers the interdisciplinary program in partnership with
Georgetown University, Texas
A&M University and HEC Paris,
each of which provides diverse
but complementary perspec-

tives on this vitally important
area.
Graduates will receive an Executive Master’s degree from
HBKU, and will be eligible to
receive certificates of completion from HBKU’s partner universities: Georgetown University, HEC Paris, and Texas A&M
University, in accordance with
the requirements of each of the
partner universities.
“Hamad bin Khalifa University
was established as a center
of academic excellence and to
lead the evolution in Qatar of
a knowledge-based society,”
says HBKU President Sheikh
Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani, Ph.D.
“This program will prepare leaders across many sectors who
will build our shared future. It
will serve our country, as well
as the organizations and individuals who participate.”
HBKU offers a dynamic learning environment based on
inquiry and discovery, where
collaborations with some of the
finest universities in the world
are resulting in a growing range
of high-quality advanced educational opportunities.
Source: http://www.hbku.edu.
qa/ExecutiveMasterE&R

tainability practitioners, is one
way to help achieve this.
“QGBC strives to raise awareness about green building and
environmental sustainability by
offering standardised educational courses as we continue
to work with our partners, in
Qatar and around the world,
to ensure that QGBC provides
material that is on par with international standards,” said
Engineer Meshal Al Shamari,
QGBC Director.
“The training programme caters
to construction, green building
and sustainability practitioners
who seek to engage in interactive, debate-like development
sessions with QGBC’s leading

Together,
Lets build a
Sustainable
tomorrow

experts,” he added.
Meanwhile, since Qatar continues to undergo massive
infrastructural
development
in preparation for 2022 FIFA
World Cup, adherence to in-

ternational sustainability standards and green building best
practices remains at the top of
national agenda.
QGBC’s professional development training courses, offered
as part of the programme, will
provide participants with Continuing Education (CE) hours
associated with several international educational partners.
The upcoming training programme will feature various
modules including, Building Energy Modelling; LEED training
and exam preparation course
as LEED V4 Core Concepts
for LEED Green Associates;
the Designers Guide to Green
Sustainable Material; LEED
V4 Building Design and Construction for LEED accredited
professional “AP” BD+C; and

LEED V4 Interior Design and
Construction for LEED AP ID+C,
in addition to tailor made sector focused courses such as
sustainability in facility management.
QGBC is a non-profit, membership-driven
organisation
dedicated to advocating green
building solutions, leading industry research, and promoting sustainable practice in
the community. QGBC offers
membership opportunities to
organisations, individuals and
students who demonstrate
support for the QNV 2030 and
showcase passion for environmental sustainability.
For more information about the
upcoming courses, log onto:
www.qatargbc.org.

21

Hempel upgrades its Topaz Range

Global coating supplier Hempel Paints have launched an upgraded version of their Topaz range of decorative paints. The
prestigious Topaz range has been refined further resulting in a highly superior performance than a normal decorative coating.
The TOPAZ range is a selected series of decorative
paints, which offer superior
performance in a variety of
product types, with various
finishes and textures. The
products include a wide
range of emulsions, enamels and texture paints, all of
which come in a broad spectrum of colours and finishes
to suit every taste, bringing to life to every decorating idea. The TOPAZ range

offers decorative coating
solutions for interior and
exterior surfaces of a building and aims to create a
healthy indoor environment
automatically becoming the
perfect choice for those who
appreciate a touch of art
and sophistication. The TOPAZ emulsions are of superior quality, possessing high
scrub resistance, low VOC
content both of which helps
to restrain flame spreading

in case of fire. The upgraded
emulsions possess industry leading opacity, whiteness and colour retention
properties, and the texture
range is equally good for
interior and exterior use, being available in four variants
i.e. multi, fine, medium and
coarse textures. The TOPAZ
enamel range is available in
matt, gloss and semi-gloss
finishes, all of which require
very low maintenance whilst
exhibiting superior whiteness and colour retention
properties. All the products
within the TOPAZ range can
be applied through normal
application techniques using widely available application tools such as brush and
roller.
Hempel supports the principle and cause of sustainable development and
offers Zero VOC green coatings within the TOPAZ range.
TOPAZ Zero is the new green
generation of paints that totally redefines environmental friendliness, combining
high-performing
coatings
with VOC free and Formaldehyde free technology. TOPAZ
Zero offers anti-mould and
anti-bacterial
properties,

making this product family
ideal for kitchens, hospitals,
schools and any other environment where there are
strict hygiene regulations.
In conclusion, the performance levels of the upgraded TOPAZ range have improved considerably, which
a result of extensive R & D
and product testing.
Hempel continues to work
hard to provide better coating solutions to its valued
customers as part of its relationship management programs.

22

Rubberized asphalt can help
reduce noise pollution on roads

Having climatic conditions identical to Qatar, the US states of Arizona, Florida, California and Texas have
successfully implemented a rubberized asphalt road program for over 40 years
Qatar is undertaking massive
infrastructure
development
programs, with more roads and
highways being built, renovated
or expanded to better accommodate the surge in traffic as
the country’s population continues its steady increase.
In December last year, a contract was signed for the construction and development of
Lejmailya, Al Otouriyah and Al
Shahhaniya, under the Expressway Program.
Last year also saw the signing
of the contract for the fourth
phase of construction of the
New Orbital Road and Truck
Route, with a value of QR 3.
348 billion.
As new roads and highways are
being constructed across the
country, residential and commercial buildings are mushrooming on both sides of the
roads.
The new establishments are
an inevitable part of the country’s development. However,
this creates challenges as well.
As more traffic hits the roads,
street noise is becoming a bigger issue.
Studies have shown that noise
levels due to road traffic have
reached intolerable high levels
in and around many urban areas all over the world. The noise
produced from the interaction
between the rolling tyre and
road surface is one of the most
important contributions in the
overall traffic noise.
This has led researchers and
industry experts to look for alternative road materials that
would reduce noise pollution
on roads.
One such material is the recycled waste tyres which have
been an economically viable
product in widespread use for
nearly 40 years in many countries.
Having climatic conditions identical to Qatar, the US states of
Arizona, Florida, California and
Texas have successfully implemented a rubberized asphalt
road program for over 40 years.
The earliest use of rubberized
asphalt was by Phoenix, Arizona, in 1964 when it was incorporated into the “chip seal” program for city streets.
A rubberized asphalt chip seal
- using a mixture of rubberized
asphalt and gravel - was applied as a temporary measure.
However, it performed so well
that the street was not reconstructed until 20 years later.
During the 1990s, Phoenix resurfaced more than 200 miles
of streets with 450,000 tons of
rubberized asphalt, which used
about 1.1 million waste tyres.
The city reported that rubberized asphalt performed without
maintenance for 14 years and
had an estimate life span of up
to 18 years.
In Qatar, Al-Hodaifi Recycling
established Qatar’s largest and
only AASHTO/ATSM compliant
waste tyre recycling facility.

During a company presentation, Al-Hodaifi stated that recycled rubber was a proven, environmental and economically
viable win-win solution to the
waste tyre predicament.
“No trees die in creation of recycled rubber and society benefits from innovative products
with a positive and sustainable
environmental impact,” the
company said.
The company argues that rubberized asphalt can reduce
road noise significantly. Reduction equals two times distance
from the sound source.
It can also reduce urban heat
island effect by reducing temperature by more than three
degrees at night.
It also provides better skid
resistance, reduced spray,
clearer road markings, thus improving safety of roads. On the
operational side, rubberized
asphalt has a minimum of 40%
more lifetime than conventional
roads, less cracking and rutting
and has a reduced initial and
maintenance costs.
The rubberized asphalt produced by the company is the
Crumb Rubber-Polymer Modified Bitumen (CR-PMB), which
is a blend of crumb rubber from
scrap tyres, asphalt cement
and properly graded, sound
aggregates in specified proportions.
The presentation highlighted
three different production
methods for it:
Wet process: the crumb rubber
is blended and interacted with
the hot asphalt cement prior to
adding the asphalt rubber binder to the aggregates.
Dry process: the crumb rubber
blended with the hot aggregates prior to the addition of
the hot asphalt.
Refinery process: a patented
process that digests the crumb
rubber into the asphalt cement

at the refinery. This method
uses about half the crumb
rubber modifier and the advantage of this process is that
the asphalt rubber binder can
be shipped to the plant in the
same manner as the asphalt
cement is delivered.
The use of super performing asphalt pavements (SUPERPAVE)
will provide a significant performance improvement to all Qatari roads with additional environmental and lifestyle benefits
to the Qatari population.
Additionally, this technology
should be introduced in the repair of existing road pavements.
Some of the other applications
of recycled waste tyres in Qatar
include: FIFA and Olympic committee approved rubber granule
infill for artificial grass, playgrounds with improved safety
and hygiene and waterproofing
with heat reflective properties.
Another application is the porous pipe irrigation system
made from recycled vehicle
tyres. The pipe is tough yet flexible using up to 70% less water
than conventional watering and
irrigation methods.
Completely porous along its entire length, the pipe seeps water precisely where it is needed
most - at the base and roots of
the plants. It can be installed at
the ground level or below mulch
or underground.
It minimizes loss of water to
evaporation from the sun and
wind. It can run along a line of
trees and plants in a nursery or
garden.
Moreover, it’s economical and
easy to install, run, and maintain. It has no moving parts and
few joints so is quick and simple
to install. There are no sprinkler
heads to become clogged, so
it’s easy to maintain.
Since the porous pipe works
on low pressure, it avoids the
need for expensive, heavy duty

pumps. It can also be run using
the head of water in storage
tanks or mainline water pressure.
Another Al-Hodaifi product that
is made in Qatar from Qatari

waste tyres is the rubber crumb.
The rubber crumb is predominantly used in the high wear
areas around the goal-mouths
and center circles of pitches.
Application of rubber crumb

The International Chamber Of
Commerce Qatar (ICC Qatar)
has launched the ICC Green
Economy Roadmap and Energy
and Environment Commission
during a seminar jointly hosted
by ICC Qatar and Qatar Green
Building Council (QGBC).
More than 60 professionals
and project managers gathered
at the Qatar Chamber for the
“ICC’s Green Economy Roadmap: implications for Qatar”
seminar to learn about ICC’s
flagship guide, which provides
guidance to business, policy
makers and society in the development and implementation
of policies and actions towards
a “green economy”.
Remy Rowhani, Director General Qatar Chamber and ICC
Qatar Secretary General, welcomed delegates to the seminar and shared the roadmap’s
benefits.
He said: “As part of our efforts
to serve our business community, we are working very closely
with the ICC International Secretariat in implementing initiatives of public benefit.
“The ICC Green Economy Roadmap represents a comprehensive effort to assist in the development and implementation of
policies and actions towards a
green economy and to build a
platform for future action and
collaboration.”
Launched during Rio+20 as
an initiative to promote a more
common understanding of a
green economy, the roadmap

outlines 10 conditions and related policy recommendations
as a framework to discuss a
range of inter-linked policies
and actions to transform into a
green economy.
These conditions include social, environment and economic innovation; collaboration
between all sectors; integrated
governance; balancing shortand long-term strategies and
multilateralism. The roadmap
also exists to share existing
best practice and initiate new
collaborative activities.
QGBC was launched in 2009
by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community
Development, to promote and
equip a sustainable building industry for Qatar.
Collaborating with ICC Qatar to
host the seminar was a natural
progression as both organizations continue to call for sustainable development and environmental protection.
Dr Alex Amato, Head of Sustainability at QGBC, moderated a panel discussion during
representatives of the Qatari
business community and governmental organizations from
different sectors including oil
and gas, construction and technology shared initiatives and
challenges in order to create
a comprehensive overview of
Qatar’s current sustainability
status.
“As an overarching organization
in the sustainability and green
building industries in Qatar,

ICC Qatar launches
green economy roadmap

gives several benefits:
• the grass drains rapidly.
• the soil is more aerated.
• the lower density of the
rubber compared to soil
means that the roots of
the grass can grow more
densely. This increases the
surface stability of the turf.
• rubber is less abrasive
than sand (the traditional
medium for soil aeration),
hence there is less microscopic damage to the root
structure.
• rubber on the surface acts
as a cushion for the crown
of the grass (the base
of the growing plant). Although the rubber crumb
does not protect the grass
leaves from damage, the
crown should re-establish
green leaves once the field
is allowed to rest.
• the ultimate outcome of
this treatment is a better playing surface. The
higher root density makes
a harder wearing surface
more able to withstand
the stresses of the sport
and the grass will recover
faster due to its improved
root network and reduced
crown damage.

QGBC is delighted to work with
ICC Qatar to introduce the concept of a green economy to key
stakeholders, decision makers
and the public in Qatar to create necessary policies, raise
awareness about green business and a green economy in
the country,” said Dr Amato.
“At QGBC, academics, innovators, researchers, activists and
the public work together to collectively further the cause of
the Qatar National Vision 2030.
We do this through safeguarding Qatar’s green movement
and sustainability in general.”
Andrea Bacher, ICC Policy Manager for the Energy and Environment Commission, who delivered the seminar’s keynote
introduction, said: “The role of
ICC in Energy and Environment
issues is vital for Qatar as its
roadmap provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary
effort to clarify and frame the
concept of a ‘green economy’
as well as to promote a more
common understanding among
the country’s residents.”
A number of presentations
were delivered during the seminar, including from AECOM’s
Steven Humphrey, who spoke
about the economic impact of
adopting sustainable solutions.
Others included Anthony Pryde,
Exxon Mobil Qatar’s Technical &
Engineering Manager; Mohammed KhaledFakhroo, Senior
Energy Policy Analyst at QP; and
Nauman Gul, General Manager
at Technomight Qatar.

23

Apps for greener construction

As local construction industry
professionals become more
tech-savvy, the tablet scenario is rapidly becoming a standard approach to designing,
constructing and managing of
buildings.
The construction apps are
developed to make the job of
the construction professional
easier and the project more
cost-, and time-efficient, but
also help to achieve required
sustainability level for the
projects.
CS looks into construction
apps developed for green
building professionals and
sustainable construction.

The Green Pro

The Green Pro App is a utility application developed to
assist architects, engineers,
owners, and contractors understand and work with the
USGBC LEED guidelines for
New Construction and Major
Renovations.
This is basically a simple implementation of the USGBC
LEED 2009 for New Construction and Major Renovations
worksheet.
The home screen is a division
of the major sections of the
worksheet that the user can

tap on to drill down into the
respective Prerequisites and
Credits.
Once a user taps on the desired Prerequisite or Credit
of interest, the App takes
the user to a page that lists
the Credit “Title”, the “Intent” of the Credit as given in
the documentation, and the
“Potential Technologies and
Strategies” as given in the
documentation.
When the user determines
that the criteria is met, the
user can then indicate that
the Credit or Credits have
been achieved and the App
will keep a running total displayed on the home screen.
As particular milestones are
achieved, such as Gold or
Platinum Certification, they
are displayed in the banner of
the home screen.
Features to be added soon
are multi-project capability,
the ability to customize ID and
RP Credits, and additional
LEED worksheets for various
other types of construction.

Site and Landscape, Energy,
Water, Indoor Environment,
Materials, Waste, Owner and
Public Education.
Sustainability Assessment
Simple techniques can be
applied to site planning to
reduce the environmental impact and development costs.
This app easily customizable
and can be modified to meet This is designed to assist
project developers, project
your projects needs.
managers, and local planning
authorities in assessing the
sustainability of a community.
It is the starting point for creating a plan to make your projLEED project checklist
ect sustainable.
This app can be tailored to
meet the needs of the project.
The creator of the app is Team
operations & maintenance Canvas

mobile app: This is a tool for
building owners and operators to identify and implement
practical and measurable
green building design, construction, operations and
maintenance solutions.
LEED certification provides
independent,
third-party
verification that a building,
home or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high
performance in key areas of
Sustainable Building
Techniques Checklist
human and environmental
health: sustainable site development, water savings, enerThe Sustainable Building gy efficiency, materials selecTechniques Checklist is di- tion and indoor environmental
vided into eight categories: quality.

Growing opportunities in
GCC’s green building sector

D

emand may outstrip
the supply of vital
sustainable materials
to meet green building regulations in the GCC, according to a new report.
There are enormous opportunities in the region for suppliers
of energy-saving and green
products, including lighting,
kitchen and bathroom fittings
and natural stone fittings, says
the report by Ventures Middle
East commissioned by The Big
5 construction exhibition in
Dubai.
“Green buildings witnessed
a slow take-off in the GCC,” it
says, adding that governments,
however, had acted swiftly in
the past three years to embrace
sustainability through education and legislation.
Developers have also recognised that buildings have to
demonstrate sustainability to
be marketable.
The “GCC Focus on Sustainability in Construction” report says:
“The rise in green buildings has
resulted in an increased demand for green building materials. It has also resulted in the
creation of new and unconventional building materials, which
are in line with new building
specifications.”
The report was prepared in the
run-up to the two-day Sustainable Design and Construction
Conference in Dubai, which
takes place during The Big 5
exhibition at the World Trade

Centre in Dubai.
Green ratings systems have
been introduced in all GCC
countries: LEED, from the USA,
and the UK’s BREEAM are used
by many developers and each
country is adopting its own
standards.
There were 1,236 LEED-rated
projects in the GCC in 2013
and the UAE accounts to 67%
of them. Qatar has 190 projects (16 %), Saudi Arabia has
158 projects (13%), and Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman have 51
LEED-rated projects between
them accounting for around
4%.
“The UAE is considered a leader in green building practices,”
says the report. In addition to

being one of the LEED pioneers,
Abu Dhabi has introduced its
own system Estidama, a green
building integrated program,
which assesses sustainability
across the life of the building.
“In some requirements, Estidama is more stringent than
LEED and other standards,”
says the report.
While the new report establishes that most developers
now recognise the commercial
benefits of a sustainable building, it also points out that some
contractors are “reluctant to
procure technologies which are
perceived to be more expensive
and are unsure of any tangible
benefit”.

Green building

Learn about green buildings
near you and around the
world using this free mobile
app.
View project images, read
case studies and listen to audio tours. Search for buildings
or companies and rating systems like LEED, Living Building Challenge (LBC), Passive
House, BOMA BESt with beautiful results displayed on an

interactive map.
A project of the Open Green
Building Society with support
from the City of Vancouver,
and the Canada and Cascadia
Green Building Councils.
The app isn’t yet available in
Qatar, though with the interest in green buildings, the app
will certainly gain in popularity
in the state also.

Energy saver

This is an ultimate bargain
that pays for itself over and
over in savings. EnergySaver
is a powerful and
accurate analytical tool yet it
is quick, simple, and efficient
to use.
EnergySaver provides highresolution visual results specifically maximizing the advantages of the Retina Display
if available as in iPod touch 4,
iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and The
new iPad (iPad 3), etc.
EnergySaver allows to analyze the current and estimate
the future energy consumption instead of just analyzing
or tracking past energy consumption.
EnergySaver also enables
you to customize and analyze

each appliance’s energy consumption instead of just the
overall consumption.
By analyzing each appliance’s
current energy consumption,
you can make real changes
in the energy-efficiency of the
building. The app is good for
end-users and facility management.

ECO FLASH

EcoFlash Homes is a flashcard application that is targeted at helping construction
professionals prepare for the
LEED AP+ Homes exam.
With over 550 cards, the application in meant to be a primary resource for exam preparation. EcoFlash offers flash
cards for the LEED Green Associate and AP exams.
While the full app retails
for $19.99, EcoFlash offers
“Lite” versions of the Green
Associate and LEED AP BD+C
apps for free to try them out
before committing.
Other versions available for
5 exams: LEED Green Associate, LEED AP+ BD+C, LEED
AP+ ID+C, LEED AP+ O+M,
and now LEED AP+ Homes.

Qatar looks into
recycling of construction waste

The latest trends in infrastructure and construction technologies and their role in supporting
Qatar’s building sector were
highlighted at the sixth international Future Concrete conference, held at the Grand Hyatt
Hotel in Doha last month.
The conference was organized
by Advanced Construction and
Technology Services (ACTS), a
leading consulting organization
in the field of construction materials and geo-technical engineering.
Dr Khaled Hassan, Regional
Manager at TRL, said at the
event that there were 80 million tons of construction waste
in Qatar that could be used in
building materials and in new
construction.
He said that Qatar had already
started recycling excavation
waste and concrete debris to
reuse in the ongoing massive
construction sector projects.
“Currently it is expecting to recycle about 20% of the concrete
waste, which may eventually be
increased to up to 50%,” said
Dr Hassan.
He pointed to various challenges facing construction in Gulf
countries, especially Qatar, due
to material shortage. He added
that these challenges required
total co-operation among all
government institutions and
construction companies.
Delivering a keynote address
on behalf of Ministry of Environment Undersecretary and
Qatar Standards Chairman Dr

Mohammad Saif Al Kuwari,
Hassan said that Qatar, given
its extreme heat, humidity, and
saline conditions, had been
conducting extensive research
to address construction industry-related challenges and improving building standards for
durability and sustainability of
various projects. “Qatar is also
working to find alternatives to
sand, gabbro and other raw
materials to reduce its dependence on imports,” he added.
He said that his company had
identified the quantities and
types of waste and how to use
it to reduce dependency on import of construction materials.
He explained they started benefiting from this waste in construction of experimental roads
and buildings.
Dr Alessandro P Fantilli, Professor at Politecnico di Torino
in Italy, spoke about recycled
concrete and health monitoring
systems of concrete structures.
He said that recycling was important for Qatar, specifically
since some buildings were being destroyed for reconstruction
and innovation. “In this case
it’s important to recycle the old
concrete and reuse it.”
Engineer Khaled Awad talked
about his expectations pointing
out that “Qatar’s infrastructure
projects will reach $70 billion
in the coming seven years. This
requires special care for quality
and quality control to achieve
the highest levels of building
durability”.

He added that most buildings
executed in Qatar currently
followed tight timelines and
technology could play a role in
accomplishing projects in time
and with high quality.
Dr Noureddin Daas, researcher
and expert in laboratory and
standards affairs at Ashghal,
talked about Qatar Construction Specifications 2015 and
the importance of committing to construction standards
which became a necessity for
the society to preserve the
health of humans.
He explained that the standards
and specifications achieved the
highest quality and safety in
buildings, roads and infrastructure, as it ensures the improvement of performance and functionality, energy efficiency and
preserving the environment
through the green building systems.
He stressed the importance of
defining the technical specifications of construction concrete
that achieved sustainability
requirements, besides seismic
resistance of buildings.
Co-sponsored by the American
Concrete Institute, ASTM and
the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), the conference also dealt
with structural health monitoring; innovative practices in repair, evaluation and protection
of structures; concrete quality
in fast-track projects; and the
intelligent use of construction
materials in large-scale projects.

24

Construction

SITES

Technology

Qatar eyes solar outdoor cooling
The move towards solar energy in the Gulf region is not incidental or sudden. Qatar has recognized the importance of producing solar power, like its neighbors, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia,
as an alternative to the use of fossil fuels. According to a report on thegreenprophet.com, the
Qatar Solar company in 2013 purchased a stake in SolarWorld AG, a German firm dedicated to
the manufacture and marketing photovoltaic products worldwide. SolarWorld AG, distinguishes
itself from its competitors by integrating all components of the solar value chain, from feedstock
to module production, from trade with solar panels to the promotion and construction of turn-key
solar power plants.
Dubbed the BMW of solar panel producers, the SolarWorld AG is competing with China’s flood of
cheap, generic photovoltaic panels.
Salah Nezar, Corporate Sustainability Director at the Doha-based Qatar Project Management
(QPM) company, says the practical applications of harnessing solar energy in the Gulf region are
massive and lucrative.
“There are just a few days in the region when direct sunlight is low. Therefore, the practical applications of harnessing solar energy in the region are massive and much more lucrative in terms of
sustainability factors than anywhere else in the world. This solution can drive the massive demand
growth for cooling in our expanding cities,” adds Nezar.
A research paper by QPM explains how the sun can be an innovative and sustainable answer to a
scalable and affordable outdoor cooling solution in Qatar.
The research, being presented by QPM, is co-authored by Nezar on behalf of QPM in partnership
with Dirk Krüger and Jürgen Dersch from the German Aerospace Center, which is headquartered
in Cologne.
The ground-breaking solution aims at rebranding the outdoor environment in Qatar during the
summer, so it is comfortable and more appealing for people to experience open-air activities
rather than staying inside a confined environment.
The outcome of this synergistics study shows the viability of the proposed outdoor cooling solution
with the use of solar energy up to 90% of the cooling demand.
There are few days only when the direct radiation is low; the output of the proposed solution can’t
fully meet the cooling demand and another source of energy might be considered for these days.
As the cooling load peaks late in the day due to high humidity level, an optimized thermal storage
between the solar field and chiller has been introduced in the region to provide for uninterrupted
system performance.
The economic segment of the study has demonstrated the viability of the proposed solution as the
estimated cooling cost is around € 0.20 (approximately QR0.87) per kWh of the cooling demand.
Furthermore, investigations showed a potential cost reduction if another source of heat demand is
available to absorb the surplus of energy produced by the solar field when not needed.
“Now we need to move forward on the application itself. We have the blueprint; we need to find
partners to develop a prototype. We also need to find a mechanism for the implementation. Lusail,
Katara, Souq Waqif have all expressed interest. We do not have a prototype yet,” Nezar said in a
conversation on the sidelines of the last Middle East District Cooling Summit in Doha.
“Solar energy is the future. The technology might be expensive now but in the future when fossil
fuels have run out, all we will have is the sun. So tracking the strategic path of developing this
technology as an alternative resource is very important.”

Construction demand creates need for
smarter concrete production in GCC

Several of the world’s largest construction and concrete
companies gathered in Dubai
last month to discuss solutions
to ensure a consistent supply
of the world’s most-used building material – concrete.
With infrastructure project
awards across the region forecast to exceed $86 billion in
2014, according to construction intelligence firm Ventures
Onsite, demand for concrete is
set to rise significantly in the
GCC, which already accounts
for over 40% of the Middle
East concrete consumption.
Previous construction booms
have seen the supply of concrete unable to meet demand,
leading to spiraling prices and
delayed projects.
“Developers in the GCC have
implemented the latest and
most advanced technologies
of ready-mixed concrete in the
construction of high-rise buildings and iconic structures,”
said Ihab Bassiouni, UAE
Country Manager for Grey Matters Consultancy, and advisory
board member for Middle East
Concrete.
“High performance concrete
has been used with emphasis on concrete placeability,
strength and durability,” he
said.
“More attention shall be paid
to the impact of concrete on
the environment where new
sustainable solutions, in terms

of concrete materials and
production facilities, shall be
adopted in order to cope with
the rising trend towards sustainable developments in the
region,” said Bassiouni.
Construction leaders are debating the capacity available
for these methods, as new
concrete technologies such
as “Shotcrete” super highstrength concrete have not
yet been introduced into the
region.
Talking about the burgeoning
concrete market in the region,
Adel Taybah, Plants and Works
Manager for Ready Mix Beton
and advisory board member
for Middle East Concrete, commented: “The growing concrete industry in the region
continues to stay ahead of
the trends, aiming at ensuring
energy and cost efficiency, as
well as contributing to sustainable structures by adopting
green technologies.”

Taybah added: “Though cement markets faced tough
times recently amid the slowdown, the demand has well
and truly returned, along with
demand for more advanced
concrete technology to support
the region’s megaprojects.”
With sustainability a key issue
for cement production given its
high pollution output, one of
the main panels at the event
reviewed the latest low carbonemitting concrete innovations.
In line with the constant demand for concrete in the region, Middle East Concrete
included CPD-certified workshops and technical seminars
on concrete methods, as well
as live demonstrations and
panel discussions focusing on
the latest concrete technologies and innovations.
Middle East Concrete took
place in November at the
Dubai World Trade Centre.

KnowCrete by
Concrete and climate change:
How does concrete stack up
against other building materials?
By Lionel Lemay, PE, SE, LEED AP, Senior VP, Sustainable Development, NRMCA
and Colin Lobo, PE, PhD, Senior VP, Engineering, NRMCA
Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, both measures of environmental impact, are important parameters in the discussion of life cycle
assessment (LCA.)
LCA attempts to quantify the environmental impacts, including energy consumption and carbon emissions, of a product, process or service.
LCA is sometimes used to measure the environmental impact of structures
throughout their entire life cycle.
Generally, a building or building product life cycle can be divided into five
life cycle phases: material acquisition, manufacturing, construction, operational phase, and demolition, reuse or recycling.
The operational phase is typically the longest and most critical phase of the
life cycle since this includes the actual use of the product in a building or
roadway.
Impacts from heating and cooling buildings, roadway traffic, maintenance
and repair typically far outweigh the impacts during the other four life cycle
phases.
There are few published works that take into account all five phases when
conducting a comparative LCA of concrete and other building materials.
The research studies referenced in this paper are mainly partial LCAs for
several different phases of the life cycle.
CO2 from Cement Manufacturing As with all industrial processes, cement
manufacturing requires energy and the subsequent generation of CO2.
According to the US Department of Energy, cement production accounts
for 1.8% of energy consumed in the U.S. This level is relatively low in comparison with other industries, such as petroleum refining at 31.4%, steel
production at 4.9% and wood production at 2.1%.
For the most part, CO2 is generated from two different sources during the
cement manufacturing process:
1. use of fossil fuels in the burning process, and
2. calcination, when calcium carbonate is heated and broken down to calcium oxide with the release of CO2.
Calcium oxide is approximately 60% of the raw material required for the
manufacture of cement. Limestone is the primary naturally occurring
source of calcium oxide used in the manufacture of cement.

Ashghal says it will provide roads and infrastructure implemented according to the highest standards
Qatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Public Works Authority
(Ashghal) has vowed to continue its efforts to accelerate the
implementation of local roads
and drainage works.
The programme includes projects for comprehensive rehabilitation and development of
infrastructure and other projects to create an integrated
infrastructure in some undeveloped areas.
This was revealed during a
media meeting, organized by
Ashghal for the Doha Industrial
Area project last month.
During the meeting, Saoud Al
Tamimi Manager of Roads Projects Department in Ashghal,
and Ahmed Al Obaidly, the project engineer responsible for
roads in Qatar, south gave the
media an introduction to the
project and the latest progress
so far.
A site visit followed the meeting where journalists got more
details about the works taking
place on site and spoke to the
project engineers.
The development of roads and
infrastructure in Doha Industrial Area is one of the major
projects under Ashghalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program as it aims to make a comprehensive improvement to this
vital area known for high traffic
density and large number of
businesses.
To facilitate the implementation
process, the project has been
divided into several phases.

The first package commenced
at the beginning of this year in
January, and it extends over an
area of approximately 480 hectares. This phase of the project
consists of works to redesign
and upgrade the existing road
network and associated utilities.
It also includes the construction and rehabilitation of roads
with a total length of more than
38km. These include 18km of
local roads, 7km of collector
roads, and 14km of arterial
roads in addition to 19 intersections to organise and manage
traffic, and significantly improve
the existing transportation system.
The project will include the protection, relocation and upgrading of the existing utilities, such
as potable water lines, electrical cables and substations,
telecommunication networks
for telephone and security systems, as well as the construction of treated sewage effluent
network for irrigation of the soft
landscaping and public gardens.
The project will include the
construction of a large tank
to collect storm water that will
accommodate a very large
amount of rain even after heavy
and continuous rainfall, as well
developing and upgrading the
drainage and sewerage systems, including micro tunneling
works.

In addition, the project will establish an updated street lighting system incorporating most
advanced technologies, and
replace the old boundary walls
separating the existing facilities
and streets with new walls.
When complete, the new and
advanced drainage systems will
eliminate the problems of sewage overflow and surface and
ground water collection and the
need for trucks or tankers to extract water.
The new system will meet all
the requirements of industrial
and commercial business owners, and will ensure efficient
water drainage, in addition to
protecting the area from any
potential hazard resulting from
unforeseen weather conditions,
and enhancing the general view
of the area.
The Public Works Authority reiterated that it would provide
roads and infrastructure implemented according to the highest standards.
This will include upgrade of existing roads, establishment of
traffic signalised intersections,
multi-level intersections and
pedestrians and cyclists paths,
in addition to the installation of
lighting systems, and beautification and landscaping works.
The works will result in various benefits, reflected in a developed, safer road network, a
smoother traffic flow, reduced
pollution and a better environ-

ment.
The estimated cost of the
first package is approximately
QR1.4 billion. The project will
develop an area that serves
more than 580 land plots allocated for commercial projects
and have a positive impact on
commercial and industrial business owners.
The project will enhance the
position of Doha Industrial Area
and the overall public opinion.
Ashghal has made good progress in the implementation of
the project works. It is working
on the excavation of trenches,
construction of concrete examination and maintenance rooms
(inspection rooms), installation
of pipes for surface and ground
water drainage systems on the
West Industrial, Al Barradat,

and Al Binaa streets.
The removal of asphalt layer of
the existing roads and excavation to the formation level in
West Industrial and Al Manager
Streets are in progress. This
is in addition to implementation of dewatering works in all
trenches, and treatment before
drainage to the authorised region.
Micro tunnel shafts at Road 15
are being constructed in order
to connect to the drainage network.
Excavation in some areas has
also started in preparation
for the construction of a new
boundary wall.
The construction contract of
package one was awarded at
the beginning of last January
to Qatari Trading & Contracting

Group & MSF Engenharia, SA,
joint venture (JV) and it is expected to be completed in the
second quarter of 2016.
As part of its keenness to communicate effectively with the local community and commercial
and industrial businesses owners in the Doha Industrial Area,
the authority distributed brochures to all residents, including information about the project components and benefits.
The authority responds to all
inquiries, suggestions and
complaints through its social
media networks and contact
center which operates around
the clock seven days a week,
as well as providing the SMS
updates service through online
registering on Ashghalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website.

26

Construction

SITES

News

Ashghal signs infrastructure
contracts worth over QR5 billion

The total value of contracts Ashghal awarded from January 2014 until now exceeded QR26 billion
Qatar’s Public Works Authority
(Ashghal) has announced the
signing of 12 infrastructure
contracts with an estimated
value of QR5. 53 billion.
These included seven construction contracts under the local
roads and drainage program,
one under the expressway program and four for sewage stations.
With the signing of these contracts, the total value of contracts Ashghal awarded from
January 2014 until now exceeded QR26 billion.
These included infrastructure
contracts worth QR22. 628 billion and building projects contracts worth QR2. 543billion,

By signing these new
contracts, the total
amount of contracts
awarded by the Public Works Authority
as of January 2014
and until this day
has exceeded QR26
billion.

in addition to contracts for the
operation and maintenance of
roads and sewerage networks
worth QR762 million.
Ashghal President Nasser Bin
Ali Al Mawlawi signed the 12
new contracts with the representatives of companies, which
won the bids.
The contracts signed under the
local roads and drainage program included: the construction and development of East
Aziziya, as well as of the roads
and infrastructure of the north
part of New Slata (Zone 40),
the West of Al Wakrah (Package 1, Phase - 2,), Rawdat Abal
Heeran (Package 2), the North
of Bani Hajer (Phase - 2, Package 7) and preparatory works
and building walls in Al Khor

industrial Area “Abal Grarees”
(Package 5). These are in addition to a flow diversion scheme
in Al Wajbah and New Al Rayyan
to the North Doha treatment
station.
Under the expressway program,
one contract was signed for the
construction and development
of Lejmailya, Al Otouriyah and
Al Shahhaniya. In 2014, the
fourth phase of construction of
the New Orbital Road and Truck
Route was signed with a value
of QR3. 348 billion.
As for the sewerage projects
contracts, those included: the
design, construction, operation
and maintenance of Al Shamal Sewage Treatment Works
(STW), the design and construction of the second phase
expansion to the industrial
area’s Sewage Treatment Facility (STF), the design, build,
operation and maintenance of
Al Dhakhira Sewage Treatment
Works (STW), transfer pumping
station and associated pipelines, and the design and build
of Doha West Sewage Treatment Works (DWSTW) extension number 5.
Local roads and drainage
contracts
1.
The construction
and development of East
Aziziya:
This QR217,073,527 contract
has been awarded to Leighton
Contracting Qatar.
The project, which started in
the fourth quarter of 2014,
is due to be completed by the
fourth quarter of 2016.
The project will include the development of the East Aziziya
area - which covers 720,000
square meters and include
740 residential plots - by constructing storm water drainage,
sewage networks, and treated
sewage effluent networks as
well as the construction of road
entrance and exits, parking
lots, artscape and landscape
features.
2.
The construction
and development of the
roads and infrastructure of
the North Part of New Slata

(Zone 40):
This QR289,749,729 contract
has been awarded to a joint
venture between Al Mohanna
Trading & Contracting and Pu-

entes Y Calzadas Infraestructuras.
The project, which started the
third quarter of 2014, is due to
be completed by the third quarter of 2016.
The project is located in the
north part of New Salata
within the Doha Municipality
(Zone 40). The project area is
estimated at about 270,000
square meters and will benefit
around 696 plots of land.
The project will cover the development of roads and infrastructure to provide storm wa-

Officials shaking hands after signing the deals at the contract award ceremony.

ter drainage, sewage networks,
and treated sewage effluent
networks for irrigation.
It will also include the development of internal roads 24km
long, with a width between 12
and 30 meters, in addition to
street lighting, parking lots, pedestrian paths and cycleways,
and artscape and landscape
features.
3.
The construction
and development of the
roads and infrastructure
West of Al Wakrah (Package 1, Phase - 2):
This QR490,240,090 contract
has been awarded to a joint
venture between Lane Mideast
Qatar, Solid General Construction, and Tadmur Contracting.
The project started in the third
quarter of 2014 and is due to
be completed by the third quarter of 2016.
The project is located in Zone
90, on the western outskirts of
the existing Wakrah City, and is
bound by the Wukair Road to
the north, the Wakrah Bypass
to the west and south, and existing residential areas to the
east.
The project area is initially being developed as a residential
area with commercial, government, entertainment and sup-

porting facilities.
As part of this project, roads
and infrastructure will be developed in West Wakrah over three
packages, the first of which
covers an area of 1.80 million
square meters.
The project will include the development of roads and infrastructure to provide storm water drainage, sewage networks,
and treated sewage effluent
networks for irrigation.
In addition, the project will include the development of internal roads, street lighting,
parking lots, road entrance
and exits, a network of pedestrian paths and cycleways and
artscape and landscape features.
4.
The construction
and development of the
roads and infrastructure in
Rawdat Abal Heeran (Package 2):
This QR544,991,076 contract
has been awarded to a joint
venture between Teyseer Contracting Company and Consolidated Contractors Group (Offshore) .
The project will start in the
fourth quarter of 2014 and is
due to be completed by the corresponding period in 2016.
Rawdat Abal Heeran (Package 2) covers 2,180,000,000
square meters over a vast area
of open desert in the western
outskirts of Doha (Zone 53).
The project will consist of the
development of roads and infrastructure to provide water
drainage, sewage networks,
and treated sewage effluent
networks for irrigation as well
as the development of internal
roads, road entrance and exits,
street lighting, parking lots, pedestrian paths and cycleways

The coming year
(2015) will also witness the execution
of a different set
of infrastructure
projects within the
local roads and
drainage program
and the development
and improvement of
facilities

and artscape and landscape
features.
5.
The construction
and development of the
roads and infrastructure
in the North of Bani Hajer
(Phase - 02, Package 7):
This QR322,700,000 contract
has been awarded to a joint
venture between Teyseer Contracting Co. and Consolidated
Contractors Group S.A.L (Offshore).

The project will start in the first
quarter of 2015 and is due
to be completed by the fourth
quarter of 2016.
The project will include the development of local roads and
infrastructure in the Bani Hajer
area, north of Doha which is
part of Al-Rayyan municipality and located approximately
10km west of Doha’s central
region.
The project covers around
1,350,000,000 square meters
and the major infrastructure improvements being implemented
as part of the project include
the construction of linking
roads and paved roads granting
access to existing and future
housing units that will be built
at the project site.
It will also include the construction of secondary roads linking
between the local roads and
neighbouring main and secondary roads network, in addition
to developing pedestrian paths,
road signs, street lighting, and
the installation of fences, street
signals, and traffic control systems.
Furthermore, the project will
consist of the development of
storm water drainage, sewage
networks, and treated sewage
effluent networks for irrigation
as well as and artscape and
landscape features alongside
the roads.
6.
Preliminary works
contract and construction
of boundary wall in Al-Khor
industrial Area, Abal Grarees (Package 5):
This QR61,320,947 contract
has been awarded to ALCAT
Contracting Company.
The project will start in Q1
2015, and is due to be completed by Q4 2015.
The project which consists of
five packages will include the
development of roads and infrastructure of Al Khor industrial area. Package 05 is the
first package of the project and
includes installing a boundary
wall in Al Khor’s new industrial
area.
The boundary wall is made of
pre-cast concrete and is 2.6m
high over a length of approximately 9km.
The flow diversion schemes
in Al-Wajbah and New AlRayyan, north of Doha:
This QR118,250,500 contract
has been awarded to Bin Omran Trading & Contracting Company.
The project started in the third
quarter of 2014 and is due to
be completed by the corresponding period in 2015.
The project is located north of
Muaither area which is part
of Al-Rayyan Municipality and
includes the construction of a
deep sewage tunnel which is
6.3km long and a depth of 6
to 21m. This is one of several
projects throughout Doha to
replace pumping stations with
gravity drainage systems.

Doha BIM Users start online networking group for those involved in Building Information Modeling (BIM)
This QR1,510,955,000
contract has been awarded to a joint venture between Hyundai Rotem
and Aqualia Mace.
The project will start in
Q1 2015 and is due to be
completed by Q3 2018.
The project will include
the design and building of
a Sewage Treatment Facility (STF) with a capacity of
56,200 cubic meters per
day to treat effluents generated from the Al Khor
and Al Dhakhira areas.
The facility will use the
latest in high-tech electrical and mechanical
equipment to improve the
quality of treated effluent
in such a way to ensure
constancy of the required
quality.
The sewage treatment
will involve many stages
and the treated effluent
will be used for irrigation and landscaping. The sewage sludge resulting from sewage treatment will also be processed and used as backfill material and compost.
The project also includes the modification of the existing pumping station in Al Khor in order to handle the sewage generated from residential and service projects
planned for the region, the construction of a sewage pumping station to pump sewage form the existing treating facility in Al Dhakhira and Al Khor to the new Sewage
Treatment Facility in Al Dhakhira.
Additionally, the project includes the operation and maintenance of the entire
plant for 10 years from the date of the completion of the design and construction works.
1. The design and build of Doha West Sewage Treatment Works
(DWSTW):
This QR797,000,000 contract has been awarded to a joint venture between DeAshghal Upcoming Contracts: Expressway Programme Contract
gremont SA and Marubeni Corporation.
This QR 668,930,214 contract has been awarded to Qatar Building Company (QBC).
The project will start in Q1 2015, and is due to be completed by Q3 2017.
The project will start in Q1/2015 and is due to be completed by Q4/2016.
This project will include the expansion of Doha West Sewage Treatment Works in
The project, stretching from the center of the State Doha to the North West, will inorder to increase the capacity of the station by 104,500 cubic meters per day so
clude the development of the existing Al-Shahhaniyah-Al-Jemailiya road passing by
that the total capacity reaches 280,000 cubic meters per day.
the Al Otouriyah over a length of 28.7km.
works include the expansion of secondary and tertiary treatment and processIt will include the construction of a two-lane road in each direction separated by
ing and drying sludge, in addition to the development of a new system for steriliza median island, with the possibility of adding a third lane in each direction in the
ing treated effluent. The project also includes the construction of a pump station
future.
for effluent treatment plant.
The project is distinguished by its pedestrian paths and cycleways along the side of
2. The design, build, operation and maintenance of Al-Shamal Sewthe road.
age Treatment Works (STW):
In addition, the project will include the construction of four main intersections,
This QR238,515,309 contract has been awarded to a joint venture between
namely: Al-Jemailya Road with the roundabout leading to the camel race track, AlLarsen & Toubro Limited and Waterleau Group (consortium).
Jemailya Road with the Al-Kharib, Al-Jemailya Road with the roundabout leading to
The project will start in Q1 2015 and is due to be completed by Q1 2017.
Al-Otouriyah and Al-Jemailiya Road with the roundabout leading to Al-Ghuwairyah.
The project will include the design and construction of wastewater treatment
The road is designed to accommodate about 1,000 vehicles per day.
plant in the north. The facility will use the latest in high-tech advanced electrical
The project comprises the development of services and infrastructure facilities to
and mechanical equipment to improve the quality of treated effluent and to operinclude rainwater drainage, and smart transport systems.
Additionally, the project will include the operation, installation and maintenance of
ate the station with the minimal manpower in such a way to ensure constancy of
electrical sub-stations. It is also worth mentioning that camel underpasses will also
the required quality.
be developed to facilitate their access to the camel race track located within the
The amount of generated sewage flow for this project can reach up to 7,500
project area.
cubic meters/day. Additionally, it will include the operation and maintenance of
the entire plant for 10 years from the date of the end of the design and construction works.
3. The design and construction of the second phase expansion to
the industrial areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sewage Treatment Facility (STF):
This QR237,521,221 contract has been awarded to Six Construct. The project
will start in Q1 2015 and is due to be completed by Q1 2017.
The project will increase the capacity of the industrial area treatment plant from
30,000 to 60,000 cubic meters per day.
The facility will use the latest in high-tech advanced electrical and mechanical
equipment to improve the quality of treated effluent and to operate the station
with the minimal manpower in such a way to ensure constancy of the required
quality.

The Construction and Development of
Al-Jemailya, Al-Otouriyah, and Al-Shahhaniyah:

28

Construction

SITES

Tenders

ASHGHAL TENDERS AND AWARDED TENDERS
Companies Eligible to Tender:
(1) Qatari Companies Only
(2) Joint Venture (JV) Companies,
which includes a Qatari Company
having a minimum of 51%, share
holding of the JV
(3) Non-Qatari Companies
(4) Not Applicable
* All financial values are in QAR

Tender No.

Type

Tender Title

Participants

Issuing Date

Closing Date

Category

PWA/STC/036/1415

STC

Supply of General Electrical Items for Pumping
Stations
(AA-D/14-15/OM/1657-1.05/S)

Venture
General Conditions of Tenders
- Full Documents for the Tender
Doha and Rayyan Sewerage Scheme Miscellacan be obtained from Contracts
neous Sewer Eextension Works on Call Contract
Department (CD) against a Non– PWA/ITC/033/14-15
ITC
Qatari Companies Only
24-Dec-14
18-Jan-15
Drainage
24/2014
refundable fee paid to PWA Ac(IA/D-HC/14-15/C/094/I)
count No. (0013-001813-052),
Doha and Rayyan Sewerage Scheme Sewer ExtenQatar National Bank together with PWA/STC/037/14GTC
sion Works in Musheireb Road
Qatari Companies Only
24-Dec-14
15-Jan-15
Drainage
15
(IA-HC/14-15/C/089/S)
a copy of the Company Registration and a Company Authorization PWA/STC/035/14Supply of Submersible Pumps Spare Parts for
STC
Pumping Stations and PTP's
Qatari Companies Only
24-Dec-14
15-Jan-15
Drainage
letter.
15
(AA/DOM/14-15/M/1675/S)
- Project document may be examPre-Contract Professional Consultancy Services for
ined at Al-Faisal Tower(1), Ground PWA/STC/032/14STC
5 New Masjids at Various Locations
Consultants
17-Dec-14
15-Jan-15
Consultancy
15
Floor, Al Corniche before purchas(Package 5) BA/14-15/D/031/S
ing from PWA.
Supply & Work Contract for Modification of Existing
- Each Tender must be accompa- PWA/STC/031/14Portable GSM Starter Panels for Incorporation of
STC
Qatari Companies Only
17-Dec-14
15-Jan-15
Drainage
15
Remote Level Monitoring System
nied by a Tender Bond, either in
(AA/D/14-15/OM/1659/S)
the form of a “Certified Check” or
Provision and Maintenance of Safety Barriers
a “Tender Bond’’ issued by a Bank PWA/GTC/069/14GTC
Throughout Qatar, Contract - 5
Qatari Companies Only
17-Dec-14
13-Jan-15
Roads
acceptable to the PWA” in the
15
(AA/ROM/14-15/056/C3/G)
amount mentioned above valid for
Provision and Maintenance of Safety Barriers
(120 days). Any Tender received PWA/GTC/068/14GTC
Throughout Qatar, Contract - 4
Qatari Companies Only
17-Dec-14
13-Jan-15
Roads
15
without the proper guarantee will
(AA/ROM/14-15/056/C2/G)
not be considered.
Motor Control Centre (MCC) Spares 2014- Supply/
- The Tender shall be submitted in PWA/STC/034/14STC
Installation
Qatari Companies Only
17-Dec-14
8-Jan-15
Drainage
15
(AA/DOM/14-15/M/1674/S)
two separate sealed envelopes
(technical and financial offer) and
both envelopes must be enclosed in a third sealed envelope which shall bear the tender number, subject and closing date.
- All Tenders shall be submitted in original and one copy or they will not be acceptance.
Tenders shall be delivered at or sent to arrive not later than 1.00pm local Doha time on the closing date and deposited in the relevant Tender Box of concerned Tenders Committee’s
Chairman at PWA.
- The successful Tenderer shall provide a Performance Bond in amount of ten (10%) percent of the Contract Price endorsed by an approved local bank in Qatar.
- For further queries about any of the tenders, please communicate in writing to the Contracts Department by Fax.: (+974) 44950777

TENDERS

Please note that any information
mentioned on this table are as
per the listed companies’ tender
advertisements, without any
responsibility of the magazine.

Tender Number

Type

Subject

Entity

Close Date

Value

Envelopes
System

Tender Fees
(QRs)

6 /2014-2015

Local Tenders

Supply,installation and upgrading of data network at SCJ with
maintenance for three years

Supreme Council for Judiciary

4/1/15

39000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

150
150

67 /2014-2015

Local Tenders

Infrastructure upgrading of HP servers for QFMA Data

Qatar Financial Markets authority

4/1/15

30000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

525 /2014-2015

Central Tenders

Marketing plan for sole window customs system Al Ndadeeb
for one year

General Administration of Customs

5/1/15

170000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

300

527 /2014-2015

Central Tenders

Maintenance works for mosque No. 490 and extensions at Al
Wakkrah area

Ministry of Endowment & Islamic
Affairs

5/1/15

180000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

300

69 /2014-2015

Local Tenders

Renting of Nos. (10) light rehicles for two years

Council of Ministries

11/1/15

30000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

150

70 /2014-2015

Local Tenders

Maintenance works for mosque No.882 at Muaizer

Ministry of Endowment & Islamic
Affairs

11/1/15

30000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

150

Cleaning works for Nos. 44 Mosques group 11

Ministry of Endowment & Islamic
Affairs

12/1/15

200000 Q.R

TWO ENVELOPES

300

528 /2014-2015

Central Tenders

Ministry of Endowment & Islamic

TWO ENVELOPES
Cleaning works for Nos. 50 mosques group 9
529 /2014-2015
Central Tenders
12/1/15
200000 Q.R
300
Tenders Conditions:
Affairs
- You can get a copy of the
TWO ENVELOPES
Implementation of facilities works for Losail Intl. Karting Circuit
QMMF
524 /2014-2015
Central Tenders
12/1/15
1600000 Q.R
300
documents of this tender /
Ministry of Endowment & Islamic
TWO ENVELOPES
Cleaning works for Nos.95 mosques group 1
531 /2014-2015
Central Tenders
19/01/2015
450000 Q.R
300
Affairs
tenders of the Central TenMinistry of Endowment & Islamic
ders Committee during ofTWO ENVELOPES
Cleaning works for Nos.64 mosques group 10
530 /2014-2015
Central Tenders
19/01/2015
270000 Q.R
300
Affairs
ficial hours, against payment
of the tender documents
witch you can retrieve it.
- Must be accompanied with the tender a letter of guarantee bank / certified check from a bank operating in the State of Qatar, as indicated above for a period of temporary
deposit on 120.
- The offer must be valid for a period of ninety days from the date of the opening of envelopes.
- Will be the last date for submission of tenders is twelve o’clock on the morning of the closure, and will not pay attention to any tender received after the deadline.
- Tenders deposited in the box of the Central Tenders Committee, located in Muntazah - Rawabi Street, to be inside the stamped and sealed envelopes and addressed to the
Chairman of the Tenders Committee competent (central / local) showing the number, type of the tender and the subject.
- The Central Tenders Committee invites bidders or their representatives to attend the opening of the envelopes and read the price on the day following the date of the closure
during the office hours.
- To obtain tender / tenders documents highlight above must be to mentioned authorization letter from the company / institution.
- For inquiries, please contact Tel: 44378192 /225 /143 /149.
- For more information about the Central Tenders Committee ,tenders and auctions are being posed by the Committee You can visit the site on the Internet www.ctc.gov.qa

Morden is one of the leading
companies in scaffolding and
formwork. We believe that
success can only be achieved
through interaction with the
customers. We have all systems
for scaffolding and formwork
with all accessories.
we make technical support for
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we have a professional sales
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NOTE: Whilst we take pride in keeping our Consultants Database with the most up-to-date information, please note that the above information is provided by the Consultants mentioned in the list; therefore QCS in not responsible for any incorrect data.

“Widespread political reforms are needed to guarantee a vital business environment”

The Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) held
a session that was dedicated
to discuss and diagnose investment opportunities for attracting the private sector to
transform applied research into
industrial products or pilot projects.
Dr Laila Diab Shrair, Strategic
Planning Consultant at GOIC
Secretary General Office, delivered a paper, entitled “The
Importance of Innovation in
Transforming Applied Research
into Competitive Industrial
Products”, at the session, held
at the at the headquarters of
the Amman Chamber of Industry in the Jordanian capital on
December 15 and 16 last year.
The session was arranged by
the Arab Organization for Industrial Development and Mining,
the Amman Chamber of Industry and the ESCWA Technology
Center under the patronage of
Prince El Hassan bin Talal.

Dr Shrair stressed the importance of innovation and research centers in the development of industrial institutions
and in industrial development.
They, she said, contributed in
empowering industrial institutions to meet new requirements
in the midst of changing global
environment.
She saw innovation and creativity in production as catalysts
of industrial competitiveness.
They also helped adopting adequate mechanisms according
to practical frameworks to develop and promote innovation
capacities of industrial institutions.
Dr Shrair opined that innovation
helped guaranteeing the future
of industrial institutions and improving their performance and
competitiveness in the market.
“In fact innovation and creativity are the key factors behind
the development of products
and production processes. They
contribute in the shift toward
knowledge-based industries,
as knowledge is one of the key
aspects of today’s productivity,”
she said.
According to her, examining the

status of research centers and
scientific research environment
revealed the increasing interest of governments in scientific
research in GCC countries over
the last five years.
The GCC countries stressed
the importance of scientific research in economic diversification and in development in their
national visions, development
strategies and sector strategies.
Dr Shrair said spending on scientific research and development in most GCC countries
was modest, with the exception
of the State of Qatar that had
allocated 2.8% of its GDP in
2009 to scientific research and
development.
Developed countries allotted
around 2.5% of their GDP to research and development activities for which the private sector
paid around 80% of their total
cost.
Nevertheless, only 0.2% of the
GDP was spent on research
and development in GCC countries according to Unesco’s
2010 report (some of its figures
are approximate) with a quasiabsence of the private sector.

Spending on scientific research
in GCC countries was low compared with the 3.5% of the GDP
spent in Finland, 3.11% in Japan and 3.7% in Sweden.
Dr Shrair reiterated that GOIC’s
role in the area of investment
opportunities attracting the
private sector in GCC countries
was to support industrial development projects in these countries.
“To do so, GOIC develops industrial and economic databases,
prepares an annual report on
the readiness of GCC countries
to move to knowledge-based
industries, implements several
knowledge industry projects in
member states like Bahrain and
Kuwait in collaboration with the
World Bank and introduces numerous industrial investment
opportunities in targeted public
and private sectors.”
She offered a number of opportunities that could be adopted by big, medium and
small companies of the private
sector such as: ultrafine particles in the steel industry, the
water sector, addition of nanoparticles to concrete in the
construction industry, bio-stim-

ulation in petrochemical and
chemical industries, solar energy techniques enhanced with
nano-particles, sensors for environmental and chemical applications, nano-particle-based
smart glass in the automotive
and construction industries,
biopolymer-based food delivery
systems, personal care products for GCC countries, medical care diagnosis point and
carbon nano-tubes for energy
storage technologies.
At the end of her presentation,
Dr Shrair stated that GCC countries needed to improve their
performance according to the
Competitive Industrial Performance Index (CIP) to identify
new industrial scenarios.
“The ultimate objective is to
achieve fast and deep technological change. In fact, globalization has affected production
systems of every industry with
the emergence of new competitors.
“Thus, a completely new context has emerged to sustain
industrial development and it
is particularly challenging for
countries that did not realize
their industrial potential yet.”

In conclusion, Dr Shrair highlighted a number of recommendations, notably that governments and industrial investors
should remember that knowledge-based industry strategies
were based on competitive advantage in the countries.
“Therefore, these industries are
extensive and benefit from proven competencies. In addition to
that, widespread political reforms are needed to guarantee
a vital business environment
that reduces bureaucratic barriers, facilitates access to financing and reinforces legal and
regulatory frameworks.
“Moreover, education reform is
the first step toward finding a
solution to the pressing need
for human capital.
“In addition, governments’ role
should be promoted to provide
knowledge networks and public private partnerships need
to be encouraged to enhance
initiatives targeting knowledgebased industries market.
“In this regard, supporting
SMEs needs to be a priority to
encourage them to move toward knowledge-based industries.”